Brains, buds and birds

A walk around the garden this morning left me with little doubt that the plants believe spring is nearly here. The rhubarb has started to grow, bursting out of its strange brown papery base. Bright red stems have appeared, with a wrinkly green brain on the end that will slowly uncurl to become giant leaves later in the spring.


A rhubarb brain

The brain slowly uncurls to reveal a leaf

The apple tree is covered in little red buds and the climbing rose has its first green leaves.

Buds on the apple tree

Leaves have appeared on the rose

Clumps of daffodils are growing well and the rosemary bush is covered in little white buds that will soon open to reveal pretty blue flowers.

The daffodils are staring to grow buds

Rosemary buds

The birds are all paired up and there's a lot of chasing and squawking going on. The sparrow family are the funniest, as they have mad moments where they get very excited and chase each other around, making their bush shake and creating a racket. It's hard to say how many of them are in the gang, but I would guess at about 20.

Some of the gang in one of their favourite bushes in the front garden

I finally caught the male blackcap on camera. He's so timid and hardly ever appears on the feeders, unlike the female that visits every day and isn't shy at all.

Male blackcap

I love this photo of a rook - it shows how sleek and smooth they are and you can really see the purple sheen to its feathers. This one was just about to squeeze under the roof of the bird table, after some bread.

Rook

Finally, a thrush popped in for a brief visit. We don't see them in the garden very often, so I was pleased to see this one.

Thrush