the quick and the not so quick

gamete exchange ?

does anyone know what these slugs are up to? (They are not eating, unless they eat paving stones)

spot goes fishing

Spot was fascinated by the streaks of marble in the bed of the Inny and after trying to paw them decided to try and fish them out. They are very obvious now because the river is very low, and the sun was very bright. He did not catch the brown trout below, which itself seems to have forgotten about camouflage only working against the right background.

Nocturnal visitors

Spot welcomes a hedgehog to the grounds of OH. This is the first hedgehog we have seen for a very long time and it is reassuring to know they are still around in our very hedgehog friendly garden (minus canine companions).By coincidence in the Spring edition of Wild Cornwall, the magazine of Cornwall Wildlife Trust, which has only just arrived, there is a request for sightings of hedgehogs to be reported to the Cornwall mammal Group (see link). So we have reported it and in doing so learnt our OS coordinates.

mass hatch

despite the long cold period, there has been a mass hatch of frog spawn in the last few days. These tadpoles are mostly still in clumps, I guess because they are feeding off the last remnants of the protein in their egg sacs.

crossing the Zambesi and other boaring stories

the pack bravely crossing the mighty Inny. On the other side there were some unusual signs of much grubbing around, including areas of grass stripped off. These look suspiciously like the activities of escaped pigs or even possibly wild boars, which were released from a farm not far from us a few years ago. On the other side of the bank we found this large pawprint, definitely not a horse, and big for the small deer that live in the woods locally ... but not obviously with dew claws like a boar (see this link for an interesting guide to field signs of wild boar).
..

inner piece

freshly laid in a puddle full of it, I wonder.

of snowdrops and molehills

it is not only above the ground that we can see some signs of life flowing back into the cold blue veins of Winter's dead hand upon the landscape. Below the ground some small folk are becoming very active. This molehill is enormous and suggests that the builder was unimpressed by any metaphorical reference to a certain lack of ambition by moles and was single handedly setting out to change the world. In the top picture note the hairy dugong in the Inny.

frozen spawn

there was a sudden profusion of frog spawn about 10 days ago in every puddle and ditch. Today they are all frozen solid. I hope this does no harm. I doubt it; if they were that sensitive they would never survive the average English Spring.

first signs

It is always interesting, and up-lifting, to see the first signs of the new year's resurgence. Frog spawn appeared on 21/01 which is about a week earlier than last year despite the cold weather

making tracks

does anyone have any idea what might have made these tracks, meandering from one small clump of snow covered grass to another. The larger tracks (to the left, and top) are made by rabbits, but what walks in a straight line by placing one dainty foot in front of another. It doesn't look like the tracks of a bird. A very small rabbit maybe?

Harriet's revenge

One kiss and it were done, Prince Charming himself (aka Spot) was toaded.

harbingers of spring 2

meanwhile the puddles in the woods are a seething mass of tadpoles, and the water-boat men are once again demonstrating the properties of surface tension

here we go again

winter ends with a long sigh, and the first breaths of the New Year are the gallant little snowdrops, and frog spawn, risking the perils of a sharp frost to be first in the struggle for new life.

on the road to nowhere

early this morning a fit young female badger tried to cross a quiet country road. Cars and wildlife do not mix; drive slowly at night.

slow to worm up

meanwhile, rising above all this colourful confusion and doing its best to look like a drab brown twig is this indolent slow worm warming up in the sun. So indolent indeed that it allowed me to move the leaves (of herb robert) covering its head to take a closer look, blinked a bit and went back to sleep.

images from today's walk:frog spawn

our very own parish frog spawn, early or not I am not sure

images from today's walk:squirrel

flying fox caught in the act

squirrats

just to prove that rats are grey squirrels with bare tails. Current score:- rats 35 lurchers 0, match was abandoned at half time due to fog in dogs' heads.

as cold as a newt

a small newt of some sort that was caught out by last night's cold and was stunned into immobility outside the front door. As soon as it had warmed up a bit in my hand it was off. It was probably migrating from a garden pond somewhere nearby. All newts are protected (see link).