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Friends of Studham Common

British Frog

As the hazel catkins go over, the catkins on the alder trees on East Common are at their best, although many have been blown off in the high winds. Alder is unusual among broad-leaved trees in having its seeds in cones which remain on the branches among the next year’s flowers. The recent sunny days have tempted out a few hibernating butterflies and queen bumble bees have been working the early flowers. Frogs have appeared in our garden pond but no frog spawn though some has already been seen elsewhere in Bedfordshire. We haven’t heard of any local toad movements yet. A small toad was dug up on West Common during the hedge planting by the school children on 25th February so perhaps they are still in hibernation, waiting for some wet and warm nights to encourage them to head for their favourite ponds.

February has been a good month for birds on the feeders in our garden. For the last three weeks the usual tits, nuthatches, finches etc have been joined by a male blackcap. For us this is the first to visit so regularly at any time of year. This species is mainly a summer visitor to Britain but has been seen increasingly often in winter during the last decade or so. The current BBC Radio 4 series “World on the Move” contains some fascinating information on migrations of different sorts of animals around the world, including a bird that flies non stop some 7000 miles from Alaska to New Zealand!

Nuthatch on feeder

Alder Catkins on the Common

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Blackcap on feeder

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