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I keep thinking that spring is nearly here, but then winter makes a late comeback. Surely it can't be long? Here at The Lodge we've been watching a smörgåsbord of finches - siskins , redpolls and chaffinches , with a sprinkling of bramblings - around the bird feeders at the Gatehouse...

It’s a hard life being a frog. Of around 2000 eggs laid by each female, only a few will reach adulthood. They were recently exposed as the culprits behind an unidentified jelly found in the countryside, previously attributed to meteors ! It turns out it’s just unfertilised egg plasma...

Well, it doesn't look like we're going to see much, if any, sun this week. So I thought I'd bring you a splash of colour for today's Monday moment. And what better than a kingfisher ! Danny Green snapped this frankly stunning image of a male about to zoom off to a nearby branch for...

For the first time in ages I managed to find time to go for a walk this weekend. It was still a little chilly out, but with the sun shining bright and hinting at spring just round the corner, it was great to be outside - I felt invigorated and ready for what this week might throw at me. Much like...

It's easy to see from this photo where aeroplane designers got their inspiration from. This smart male (drake) eider is coming in to land and using his tail and webbed feet to slow down! Eiders breed around the coasts of Scotland and northern England, but move further afield in winter. During...

It's perhaps a bit premature to get excited about spring when the snow has barely melted but the brave pioneers of the perennial world are now poking their foliage into the world. The sight of new growth is very welcome after months in the barren freeze of winter. Here are some February snow...

How was the Big Garden Birdwatch for you? What did you see? Starlings were my star bird - two of them in fact. The buggy nibbles put out in my garden were clearly irresistible this pair - it's just a shame they didn't bring the rest of the flock that was circling round overhead (which obviously...

So far I've resisted the charisma of our native birds in my photo selections, but I really like this image. It's probably the contrast between the snow and the husk of the tropical coconut that I find amusing. Here Ray Kennedy does a brilliant job of capturing this great tit looking quizzically...

We all know that birds don't have teeth but those spiky things in this shoveler 's bill are called lamellae . Shovelers feed by swimming along with their bills (and sometimes their heads) submerged and the lamellae are for filtering small creatures out of the water - a bit like some whales do...