Owlsland in March
The Mountains in Early Spring - Birds and Wild Flowers
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Winter looked as though it had forgotten to come this year - we had daffodils open on New Year's Day, and the spring flowers started to blossom in January. But just as we were congratulating ourselves on missing a whole year's bad weather, the temperatures plummetted and heavens opened at the start of February. So it seems Mother Nature decided that this year Spring would be late! |
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The Almond trees last year were utterly breathtaking. We've never seen such a display of blossom, and with no rain falling, the flowers stayed on the trees far longer than usual. This year, the almond blossom opened on January 16th, the earliest anyone can remember, and we were afraid the pelting rain and howling gales might knock the flowers off before the almonds can form. |
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To say that there must be trees like this at the gates of Paradise is maybe going too far, but still....
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And the individual flowers are as gorgeous as the trees themselves.
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| The fields and the mountains are a brilliant green, as everything starts to grow. |
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The swallows returned from Africa last year on March 29th.
Stop press news!! - 11th of March 2010, and we're all excited because the first swallows have just arrived late morning.
Spring has come to Bezirgan! |
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The reason for Owlsland's name! One of the many Little Owls found here. |
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You can hear the quite distinctive call of the Scops Owl just now. Last year, this pair nested just across the road, and we're hoping they'll nest again in the same place. |
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Another unmistakeable sound is the drumming of woodpeckers, as they mark out their territory for this season. It's surprising how far the noise can travel. |
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The Garden in early Spring - Herbs & Flowers & Wildlife
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With winter having been fairly mild, the red squirrels who live in the oak tree came out of hibernation to search for food quite a few times. And now that spring has come, they're out every day racing about the oak tree and making an astonishing racket as they chatter and chitter to each other. |
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This massive common toad has just come out of hibernation.
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With winter ending, the plants are starting to come into their own.
The rosemary bushes surpass themselves for both scent and flowers. They're attracting whole swarms of bees, mostly honey bees, but already the carpenter bees are out in force. |
The Village in Spring - What's happening on the farms
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This is the time for babies! The first lambs appeared as early as a couple of months ago, and they're growing apace.
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The first kids should come into the world this month, we await them any day! And the cockeral struts round with his harem. |
And that's a taste of Spring in the mountains -
Come and visit, see it for yourself!
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