Spring Cleaning

How lovely to hear the birds singing once again.The male birds are singing to attract female birds and to establish their breeding territories.Our bird boxes were already being checked out by    Blue tits in January.Don't forget to give your bird boxes a good spring clean,removing the old nest material and making sure the drainage holes are unblocked.We discovered a group of Field mice snugly curled up in one of our boxes.....of course we left them alone.On the bird feeder this month we have seen....   Blue, Great and Coal tits,Chaffinches,Robins,Nuthatches,Great Spotted Woodpeckers,Siskins and Dunnocks. Please keep feeding the birds......especially during the winter months. 

Spring Flowers

The early signs of Spring (Gwanwyn in welsh ) can be seen and heard in and around Dol y Moch.Being close to the sea and the warming influence of the 'Gulf Stream' means our climate is a little milder than further east in Coventry.As a result Spring arrives earlier in this area of North Wales.Yellow Primroses were in flower in December and we noticed the first Daffodils flowering on the 12th of January in a local village.However at Dol y moch they are just beginning to flower as the Centre is a bit further from the sea.When did you notice the Daffodils start flowering in Coventry? 

Spring is on the way!

During the recent mild and damp weather frogs have been calling and courting.In a local pond we noticed masses of spawn on the 13th of February;we even found frog spawn on the Dol y moch basket ball court a little later!A couple of evening ago ( 27th Feb),  driving home from the Centre, the journey took longer than usual because the damp roads were crawling with frogs making their way to ponds and lakes to breed.I estimate I saw 150 frogs, sadly at least a third had been killed by passing vehicles.Just imagine how many frogs are killed on the roads at this time each year.