Kitchen Garden Forum

Today we saw the first frogs of the year in our garden pond and a blackbird was taking nesting material into the ivy covered wall - about a fortnight earlier than in previous years! Very odd.

Hi Monika,

All the blackbirds seem to have been pairing up for the past couple of weeks and yesterday I also saw a young female gathering nesting material. They were early last year, but not quite so soon. My friend a couple of miles away said a frog had startled her two weeks ago, but I've not seen any in my ponds yet, although I did see what I thought were the bubbles they make when they submerge suddenly this morning.

Do they know something we don't, or are they like us and fed up with the cold winter and ready to get going?

I'll be checking my pond daily for frogs from now on then. Think they may have been hibernating in my compost heap where the rats are living, which I gave a good stir up a few days ago, so I may have woken them up and given them a bit of a headache. Some bluetits have been investigating our two nest boxes but unsure whether they're homeseeking or just looking for insects.