Nature in Langham

May 3rd 2006

The tadpoles that developed from Easter's spawning are now very lively. They are losing their gills and developing lungs, little heads are to be seen as they take their firsts gulps of air.

The adult frogs are very patient as the tadpoles nibble and climb over them although occasionally we have seen a youngster sail through the air as a result of being caught by a well aimed foot.

We were very pleased to note that we have a breeding pair of newts this year, though realize that being carnivorous from the start the offspring may well deplete the hundreds of tadpoles!

The other pond in our garden although very small contains a large number of both toads and frogs of varying sizes who are at present enjoying today's heavy rainfall.

   The Tawny's, both ours and the visiting wild ones have been exceptionally verbal. Minerva, having listened to a singing blackbird did her best to imitate it by varying the pitch of the warbling sound she can make! All three of our owls make no distinction between day or night in their calling and have the wild ones responding during daylight hours!

   It is pleasing to see the return of the house sparrow, once taken for granted because of it's great numbers has until recently been absent.

Amongst the feathered visitors to the garden we have jackdaws nesting in an unused chimney, as they have been for many years. We have often been advised to block this off but we rather enjoy having these attractive birds here .One year Odin flew to the roof top just as the Jackdaw family emerged from their nest , we don't know who got the bigger surprise, but Odin never repeated the experience!