Dogwood

I thought today was going to be the day I finally didn't find a blip - it's been so dismal all day, 2ºC fog :-(  But MrHCB has some snowdrops in the green about to arrive and wanted to agree where to put them.  He read somewhere that they look lovely round dogwood with their cheerful bright red stems, and we remembered that we had planted one late last year near our new little pond.  There are some miniature daffodils coming up but plenty of room for some snowdrops.

I forgot to report yesterday that I saw the red kites mating.  I can't believe it was for real as they haven't finished their nest and they don't lay eggs until early April.  Maybe they were just getting reaquainted.  There is a lot of information about them on the RSPB website (as they are the most successfully reintroduced locally extinct bird in the UK).  They explore when they are first fledged, but once they are adults at about 2 years they return to the area where they were born and rarely go more than 4km away from there again.  Pairs tend to stay together, not because they are particularly faithful, but because they both return to the old nesting site and pick up where they left off.  For the females a good track record with the male is very important as the females incubate the eggs for over a month, and hardly leave the chicks at all for the first 2 weeks.  That's 6 or 7 weeks relying on the male for food for herself and then her chicks as well.