I have been recording sightings of first bluebell leaves in the wood for about 20 years now. They seem very random, and this year is a lot later than most. Also record when the wood anemones and bluebells come into flower, and that also seems a bit random and for some reason not associated with the appearance of the leaves.
Nicky cigreen
Joined: 25 Jun 2007 Posts: 9510 Location: Devon, uk
have you seen the cherry blossom graph from japan?
CBDay is a rather good marker for climate over many centuries
that was built from lots of local, historical observations, the frogmen might be building a historic/contemporary data base, if not why not start one?
I believe various amateur recordings of nature timings have been taken seriously over recent years.
Nicky cigreen
Joined: 25 Jun 2007 Posts: 9510 Location: Devon, uk
Posted: Sun Feb 05, 23 5:49 pm Post subject:
so I should be cooking tea.. however.. a frogspawny graph. I think I would say the trend is for the first sighting of frogspawn to be getting earlier.. but not really enough data to be sure. If you only looked at the data from 2010 onwards it is more convincing.. but 2007 - 2009 are less convincing.. which just goes to show that data is easily manipulated to show what you want it to show... I still think it is interesting though*.
the trend seems clear and quite strong over a couple of decades
Anomalies and "wobbly lines" are part of an overall pattern and are just part of making sense of stats
well done for getting a series of data points over a decent timescale on one site
adding lots of other sites and time windows would be interesting
that spawning line reminds me of the winter temps one, do later spawns correspond to chilly winters and early to warm ones?
another biological thermometer would be
Nicky cigreen
Joined: 25 Jun 2007 Posts: 9510 Location: Devon, uk
Posted: Mon Feb 06, 23 9:36 am Post subject:
quite a hard frost this morning - so no doubt those first batches of frogspawn wont make it, but there will be later spawnings.. there always are.
It would be interesting to record other sites - but harder - It is relatively easy to check my own garden pond every day in January.
Interestingly 2018 was the year of the beast from the East. We were snowed in in Mid march - I know because I had to rush home from a few days away and only just made it, and we were snowed in for a week. Doesn't show on the graph as significant at all.. I guess it was mild in Feb.. Sooo not sure if the recorded data says anything at all, but I shall carry on recording it.
a bit cool is usually fine so long as the eggs are under the ice layer and reasonably oxygenated, poles are a bit more vulnerable as they do not do stasis as well as jelly eggs
they may well be ok
birdtown news, that pigeon had an unscheduled terrain interaction
it left a decent print on the window, crown first at about 40mph
i do not know how it is feeling yet
Sadly we don't have frogspawn at the moment as first the frogs got red leg, then the pond sprung a leak which we haven't sorted yet. When we did, we often found the spawn above or on the surface froze so failed, but the stuff under the water was fine.
As for snow and cold weather, we have had bluebells in flower in snow and they didn't appear any the worse for it. The leaves this year are still not doing too much. I don't know how many are in the coup I am working at the moment, but haven't seen very many at all. At present all we have is wild arum.
Nicky cigreen
Joined: 25 Jun 2007 Posts: 9510 Location: Devon, uk
Posted: Tue Feb 07, 23 9:33 am Post subject:
in my experience the earliest batches of frogspawn are usually a tad too early and get frosted- though the eggs on the underside might be ok. but there will be further batches of spawn appearing later on in the season. it all works out.
Saw a pair of robins yesterday perched within a foot of each other in our hedge. They then disappeared inside, so assume nest building, or at least site selection underway. Also saw a very smart male blackbird, so courting at least I would say. More bluebell leaves coming up now, but still rather scant in some places.
ballsi sammison is rather busy collecting food and delivering it to the woodshed, rather than to a bunker, so i suspect there will be the scurry of little paws soon
Sounds good Dpack. We were out in the coppice yesterday and heard a thrush singing as we were walking up the footpath. More bluebells up. Lovely in the sun, but rain came in overnight and still raining, although luckily it is supposed to go over later.
might be building a historic/contemporary data base, if not why not start one?
mr b is looking buff and sleek
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