It’s already mid-February but the early signs of spring are abundant in the Beefayre garden. Our honeybees have survived the winter and on sunny days I’ve seen them foraging on our early flowering plants. No bumblebees as yet but any day now the early buff tailed queens will wake up hungry from their winter sleep!
The bird song in early morning is the best indicator of approaching spring. We’ve had great spotted woodpeckers holding territory with their drumming the last two mornings, such a lovely sound. All the other familiar residents were singing earlier as well, my favourite is the song thrush. I’m particularly fond of house sparrows, they’ve suffered serious declines nationally in recent years, but our colony is increasing year on year. We have about 40 now!
Long tailed tits move around foraging in large family groups, they visit our feeders daily, such a treat to see. A tree creeper was singing this morning, I do hope they will breed this year. Here at Beefayre we’ve done our best to otter proof our main garden, I couldn’t stand to see all our ducklings disappear again as they did last year. I suspect we’ve got a couple sitting already. Most days there are 18 wild ducks demanding breakfast at 7AM!
It’s an exciting time as everything comes back to life, but I can’t wait to see my first bumblebee!
