Hardy Tropicals UK

You are ahead of me then - I think the toads did better than the frogs this year here as they reproduced later. The little froggies have had a bad year this year - freeze - thaw - warm - freeze - thaw - warm - heron fodder - squat crossing the lane by one vehicle using it per hour - they have not been taught their green cross toad - I mean code.

Shame 'cos the wee midges are out in clouds right now.

huporhaha wrote: Shame 'cos the wee midges are out in clouds right now.

I'll say this very, very quietly in case they hear, we normally get midges from mid April, but none this year so far Mind you, this year on a calm day the wind gusts to 20mph

Dave Brown wrote:

huporhaha wrote: Shame 'cos the wee midges are out in clouds right now.

I'll say this very, very quietly in case they hear, we normally get midges from mid April, but none this year so far Mind you, this year on a calm day the wind gusts to 20mph

You have not really had the best of the weather so far this year Dave - I have just breathed a sigh of relief as there were no gales when the leaves were unfurling as most summers they get torn and brown and we are left looking at ragged brown foliage all summer. It has been remarkably calm (hence the midges) this last couple of months. Last year 4 nests in the garden were destroyed by wind. This year I have seen great tots, dunnocks, robins, thrushes, blackbirds and loads of sparrows fledge and we have a sedge warbler sitting tight on her nest down the garden right now.

Hope the weather improves for you soon........

"Great Marrows" I'm sure I typed something else greattits - I have an extremely polite spell check that seems to substitute anything it deems slightly rude for something else..................Every time I see a greattit (can't type it in two words) I will have to call it a Great Marrow now.

Tried it again and yes it does substitute it for marrows

It's not your spell checker Steph , it's the word censor on the forum. We had a spate of swearing on the forum, so the word censor substitutes another word. In this case the birds are renamed Great Tit, Blue Tit, Long tailed Tit.

Thanks Dave - good idea - capitals it is then but I shall still enjoy watching my "Great Marrows" feeding in the garden and have a quiet chuckle. I'd much prefer to laugh over something like that than be exposed to lewd remarks or swearing!

Here is a pic from this morning, showing the emerging legs. They are feeding on high protein Koi pellets. With maybe 1000 tadpoles in the pond there was never going to be enough food, and as the spawn has not hatched for the last 5 years, I thought the population could do with a helping hand

I had noticed that up until this year in local ponds there had been not many tadpoles but this year there are loads.