to Adrian, Jan and Keith for identifying the spider legs shown in close up last week.
I'm not sure which orb spider that is. Its web is next to a trellis and in each square of the trellis is a web. In the centre of each web is a smaller version of the spider. One is very tiny but all have the same black colour and white markings.
On to the new puzzle photo.
Guess What:
Clue: It will be quite a while before these 'a-wooing go'.
The Sleeper Awakes
Every night for the past two weeks Bobby has been checking to see whether there are any interesting spiky creatures about. About 8.30pm on Saturday he suddenly started wagging his tail and there for the first time this year was a Hedgehog which had woken from its Winter hibernation period. Last night I put out some crushed unsalted peanuts and soon after darkness had fallen there it was. It didn't move from the dish until every last piece had been eaten.
It will have lost a lot of weight during its Winter sleep and some extra high protein food will help it gain weight ready for the breeding season.
Blackcap
The male Blackcap is still visiting the bird table. For three days it has been on and off the table all day feeding for about a minute each time. I wonder whether it has recently returned to this country and is making up for weight lost on the journey. Unless there are more than one - difficult to tell. No sign of a female as yet.
They look like tadpoles. A bit brown maybe. I'm glad to see the hedgehog is back and survived the winter.
ReplyDeleteHi John,
ReplyDeleteGreat to see a hedgehog visiting your garden again :) We never get them here for some reason. Or it may be that we just don't look out for them well enough. We've had blackcaps in the garden the last few weeks as well, although we have had a male and a female.
Also just one question- just wondering if you've had any activity in your camera nest box recently? We've had almost no activity around our nest boxes this year, apart from a great tit on the hole of our camera nest box a couple of days ago. It seems with this hot weather, they would have started building a nest by now. It might be that we're just going to be unlucky with our nest boxes this year. Anyway, nice post and its good to be back looking at blogs such as yours- its been so long since I did.
Hi Joe,
DeleteGreat to hear from you again. The hogs don't stay long in one place so it's a question of looking at just the right moment. It also depends whether there are gaps they can make a route round your area. I left a couple of 4inch square holes at the bottom of a fence they use, though sometimes they walk down the front path.
The nest box has been inspected every day for about a week by a pair of Great Tits. The visits are short, not more than a couple of minutes so once again it depends whether you are looking at the time they choose, often around 8 - 9 am here. Nest building started April 8th last year so it is getting near time for them to make their minds up.
I think they might be tadpoles?
ReplyDeleteGood to see the return of the hedgehog John.
As for the Blackcap, I think he might be one of the spring arrivals. Got a few round my local now.
developing frog eggs. "Froggie went a courtin', he did go. uh-huh. uh-huh." That is a striking photo! They look like chocolate ...
ReplyDeleteHi John, I missed this one! I would say we're talking Tadpoles here :-)
ReplyDeleteLovely to see the Hedgehogs have started visiting again. My goodness it was enjoying that meal! Lovely to see mention of Bobby too, I hadn't heard anything of him for a while and feared all was not well but didn't like to ask.