Hi,
Just when it was feeling like spring the snow has come, but the signs of spring are evident in our wildlife garden as these photos, taken on Saturday afternoon show. The snowdrops and iris (I. reticulata) are very cheerful but also feed early flying insects in mild spells. They will give more of a show over the next few weeks. Plant the iris in late summer but snowdrops are best divided just as the flowers fade.
But it is not just the flowers. Our resident robin follows me round when I work in the garden, and David posted a wonderful photo of the robin on the blog recently - thanks. It also made it on to the BBC Look North weather forcast! Robins are not the only red breasted birds as we saw when we were digging on the reserve, not far from the car park, last Thursday. A lot of soil was turned over (by a digger, thankfully), and all the time a pair of stonechats were busy looking for food unconcerned by the noise, the male with his black head, white collar and orange chest. Keith, the digger driver, stopped digging to ask about them. They like wide open spaces rather than the confines of a garden but at Saltholme currently they are seen around the car park.
It is not too late to put up nest boxes - for robins and other garden birds - and we have a good variety in our shop. And there is still lots of time left to plant trees and shrubs when there is no frost, perhaps something with berries to feed the birds?
And finaly it is still winter as this photo shows. Taken from the garden gate it gives little indication of the gems that are flowering under the trees and in the gravel of the rock garden.
Bye,
Peter