Nesting

"April is the cruellest month, breeding

Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing

Memory and desire, stirring

Dull roots with spring rain." (TS Eliot)

It's certainly been a cold and wet month: February was reported as the sunniest on record. April undoubtedly was the dullest, dampest and coldest on record. We long for summer; for warm evenings and balmy days. The daffodils had an awful time of it - constantly battered and bashed, brown before they turned really yellow. The lilac is waiting to flower; no use expecting the bees to pollinate on these cold damp days.....

Around the patch I've seen broken (mostly blackbird) eggs but no sign of fledgelings. All, most likely, killed off by the sudden bursts of extreme wet cold between relatively warm micro-spells.

The swallows returned at the beginning of the month and are slowly building nests but as yet show no signs of laying and 'sitting'. The ducks have only recently started sitting on their clutches and, as it takes 28 days for their eggs to hatch, they must know a thing or two. Two wh0 started sitting a fortnight or so ago have, uniquely in my - albeit short - experience, given up and deserted their nests.... they too must know something the Weather Girls don't tell us..... The other night, which was quite a cool one, one female was quacking indignantly outside the Poultry Palace long after I'd shut everyone else up. I had to let her in or risk waking the entire neighbourhood.....Clearly she'd decided it was too cold to remain outside on her nest for the night......And yet swans in the south of the country have hatched signets earlier than ever in the previous 600 years of records......

We've also been eagerly watching Ginger. Two weeks ago it looked like she was 'due' to give birth 'any day now'. And we've been observing her, and saying that, ever since. Today she sems more likely to give birth 'any moment' than ever. She's been 'nesting' and trudging around in the mud; almost as if she's hanging on. Seems so cruel to see her so heavy and 'almost due' and yet not quite. The forecast is for warmer weather this weekend... perhaps she knows a thing or two too..... perhaps we're just impatient, or ignorant..... or both.

But I wish she'd put our minds at rest and get on with it......!