EO - A bit of Natural History

As promised this post has been labeled 'EO' for Emma's Own.

I think inside every angler there is natural historian to some degree. And certainly in me I'm not sure which is stronger when I'm out and about.I'm stuck inside revising so of course everything out side has become infinitely more appealing!

So it's finally spring, and the weather, if we don't mention it too much, is really rather lovely.
There have been many signs to tell me that it's spring and I thought it might be nice to share some of them with you:

Firstly for the birds!This is our male tufted duck, who is waiting for his female to arrive to start nesting. I'm a bit worried about her to be honest, but I hoping maybe she's already well hidden and sitting tight to a nest. I'll be quite sad if she doesn't reappear as they are our only tufty's.

I've found my first mis-laid duck eggs and nests:Staying close to the water the toads and frogs are reappearing, and if you walk around the lakes at night quietly, listening for croaking if you investigate a reedy edge with a torch you're likely to see:
If you look during the day you'll see:
Now technically this if frogspawn rather than toad spawn, Toads spawn in lines, rather than in the globules of Frogs.

Moving a little further afield, and looking to the field behind Lonsdale you're likely to see:
This is one of the doe's of a family group of 4 who roam around in our area.
Sometimes very early in the morning you might see them inside the park.

If you want to see more photo's I upload some to flickr at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/edrinkall/sets/72157623652304877/

I hope you've all had a lovely Easter, and I hope I'll see you soon!

Em

xxx