Spring Markers 2024

I have been recording the flowers out on approximately the same day in March for at least 15 years.With the warm winter, it is not surprising that this year there are more species in bloom at the moment with Cowslips, Plum blossom, Japonica, Comfrey, Alkanet all a couple of weeks ahead of last year. Certainly I have a very large number of wild or naturalised plants already in bloom and attracting insects such this Early Bumblebee, Bombus pratorum on the Mahonia.

Toft Garden Spiders etc

The wildlife is certainly waking up and spiders are particularly 'active' with some great photographic opportunities among the daffodils (Misumenia vatia, Diaea dorsata, Philodromus cespitum, Clubiona comta, Metallina spp etc. Lots of soil dwelling invertebrates disturbed while weeding and a final small caterpillar probably one of the Wainscot moths.

Peregrine Displays

 Some documentary shots of the courtship display of the Peregrine pair that have returned St Albans. The female has a rather tatty tail but it didn't seem to affect her manoeuvrability. Hopefully someone in our Nature Group with more pixels than my camera has some better shots.

Nuthatch Building Nest

The Europaean Nuthatch Sitta europaea, generally nests in holes on trees and reinforces just the entrance with mud. This pair were building a nest in the crevice in a wall, reminiscent of the Eastern Europaean Rock Nuthatch (Sitta neumayer) showing that the species have not diverged that far in nest-building habits. We watched it (?them) bring in mud and build a complete entrance to the nest area. Sometimes it disappeared into the nest as here and then elegantly hopped out and off for more materials. A wonderful harmonious setting for such an  elegant bird.

St Albans Herons

I have visited St Albans most years from 2012 to watch the Herons and friends busy courting, mating and building nests around the second week in March. After a very sparse year in 2023, this year is encouraging as we located 5 nests and maybe a couple of unpaired youngsters. The early light with low sunshine was ideal but it clouded over later so a different approach in processing at the end. My favourite is the second image - sheer 'Joie de Vivre' which is how they made me feel. The grumpy one giving the evil eye to the Coot is probably more representative of their behaviour.