In the shelter, it is warm and sunny. The walls are transparent plastic as is the roof. It is about 15 degrees outside but considerably warmer in the shelter. The extra warmth is due to the greenhouse effect. Not global warming this time, but due to its original meaning: the extra heat gained in a glass (or clear plastic) enclosure. This is due to more heat coming in then leaving, so raising the temperature. Plastic or glass is transparent to visible sunlight but not to infrared radiation, allowing sunlight to enter but preventing most of the heat from escaping.
We have a thermometer on the wall of the container inside the shelter. It reads 21.5 degrees. I am surprised, as this is so much warmer than outside. I go round the garden to gather material for this blog, when I return, the temperature is reading 24 degrees. I write notes for this blog, have a cup of tea, and it’s now 25.8 degrees. It is 12.30 pm and the sun is as high in the sky as it will get. Very comfortable, but I am thinking that in mid summer it will be baking in the shelter if we don’t have all the walls open and up.
The sky is totally blue, cloudless, and has been for a few days. These are the spring days when we get frosts in the early morning, as the heat of the day has no cloud cover to retain some of it. Around 7 am, there’s frost on the house roofs and car tops, but it has gone by 9 am as the sun rises in the sky.
There’s quite a few dwarf daffodils in bloom here and there, around the garden. But none of the tall daffs. It will be another few days before we get them. Under the silver birch, the bergenia is in flower, a cluster of pink blossoms.
There’s a small ball of frogspawn, just under the water, in the pond. A mating pair were seen a few days ago. The male clutches the female, often for many hours. She releases her eggs, and he releases sperm on top of them to fertilise them. There’s no frogs in the pond now, but we could get more mating pairs in the next week or so. How many we will get we never know in advance. So few tadpoles make it to adulthood. The Field Studies Council says:
‘Only about 2% of eggs eventually become breeding adults. Frog spawn can freeze, dry out or become diseased. Then at the tadpole stage, many animals are eaten by predators, including newts and diving beetles. And finally newly emerged frogs are gobbled up in their hundreds by reptiles, birds and mammals.’
They suggest about 1 in 50 tadpoles make it to adulthood. This figure strikes me as too high. I search on line, but I can’t find an authoritative figure for UK frogs. I see the problem, as it is difficult counting the many thousand of tadpoles, and then how do you keep track of the froglets once they have left the pond? Another problem is repetition. Once a site gives a figure, others quote it (as I have) without knowing where it has come from.
Our pond dates from 2016 and some of the wood is rotting. In the next few months, we’ll replace this wood, when the water level is a little lower.
The Gardening Group have arrived with Lisa, their tutor. They meet once a week in the library, and then come to the community garden. There are 10 students today. Numbers have held up well. This time of year is good time to come here as the garden is waking up after its winter dormancy. Herbaceous plants are throwing up new shoots, and the buds on bushes and trees will soon be bursting. I look closely at the willow. It’s always the first deciduous tree in our garden to come into leaf. But not just yet. It’s early spring; there’s a lot to come.