March 27th Felbrigg Hall

Daffodils

It has been a very chilly Easter Sunday with strong blustery winds and yet I was at Felbrigg Hall for a family picnic. I was with my parents, my two brothers, Frazer and Jake and Frazer's fiancee, Laura for this outing and it was freezing. We went for a walk afterwards to the lake and saw plenty of daffodils and primroses, but not a lot of birds.

Bumblebee

Lesser Celandine

Primroses

Marsh Marigold

Chaffinch

Common Toad

From a bridge near the lake, toads were everywhere. They were busy mating and producing strings of spawn. It appears that the frogs have already been busy here too as clumps of frogspawn were floating on the surface. There was no sign of the frogs though as it seems the breeding season for them is now over. They have produced their spawn and have dispersed from the lake. For the toads, however, the breeding season is well under way. The smaller males were wrapping themselves around the backs of the much larger females with the most dominant male winning the rights to fertilize her eggs. Frazer wanted a closer look at one, so he gently caught one for me before releasing it back into the lake.

Frogspawn

Mute Swan

The weather then turned and it started to rain. Actually, it wasn't just raining but chucking it down. We got absolutely soaked! Our clothes were wet through! It ended up being an Easter washout, I am so glad to be back home and dry again.