[3 allotments]

Lots of butterflies and bumblebees about ,i was watching lottie guys  honey bees  behind me he has 5 hives , right next to my shed thousands of bees humming around hives it looks great they dont bother me as long as i dont get to close (touch wood )also seems to be plenty of moggies around too probably after digging their loos in the recently tilled earth.

[diospyros]

A Comma to add to the butterfly count!

[tosca100]

Lots of butterflies over here too, no idea what they are but some are very dark and some are the most amazing glowing yellow. A drive by the river saw the ground alive with endangered susliks (ground squirrel) out of hibernation.

[allotmentann]

It definitely seems to be a good year for butterflies, my garden is just full of them. There were loads of Brimstones too the other day.  They are driving the neighbour's cat wild! 

[devonbarmygardener]

My magnolia stellata seems to be a home for over-wintering ladybirds.
I find a few right through the winter! There were loads today though.

[sarajane]

We found a hedgehog wandering on next doors allotment last week.  We thought it may be a little early for it to be out of hibernation, think the warm day time temp had woken it up but it had been just on freezing at night.  It looked a little 'wobbly' on its legs so neighbour took it to the nearby Hedgehog rescue home.

The very kind lady (who currently has 134 hogs) took it in but sadly it died within the hour    

[mrsbean]

just looked out of window and seen hedgehog running up pavement round side of house. lovely

[jondav14]

Signs of hedgehogs returning to my garden last night, anyone else spotted em? 

[surbie100]

Yes, but the foxes on our site have a liking for them. Have buried 3 so far this year. 

[Snoop]

Loads of insect life: bees. butterflies, beetles and grasshoppers. Sadly also mealy aphids by the million, wasps by the thousand, ticks in the tens and even the odd mosquito. This is not normal so early in the year. Getting a bit late for a really cold spell to kill them all off, and I wouldn't wish it on my lovely seedlings, but the pests are going to be a problem after such a mild winter.

[tosca100]

We have also had a mild winter in BG apart from a short spell where daytime temperatures didn't go far above -8. We are hoping that was enough to see off some nasties. We have no more cold weather forecast for this year but that may change yet. It is hard not putting seedlings out when daytime temperatures at the moment are in the mid twenties. The fruit trees are in blossom.

[JayG]

3 separate areas of extreme turbulence visible in my pond as I write this, which can only mean one thing - the frogs are having a lot more fun than I am at the moment, and there will be lots of frog spawn this year. 

[RubyR3d]

Last year was a terrible year for frogs spawning. We only had 3. This year in a pond of 8ft by 15ft we counted 34. A record for us and there is about 14 dollops of spawn. To protect it from the frost iv placed a framed panel of chicken wire over it covered in bubblewrap. It also stops hungry birds eating the tadpoles and feeding their babies.

[Snoop]

Locusts. Saw one on our land a couple of days ago and an absolutely huge one (thought it was a bird at first till I saw it land and start to adjust its wings - reminded me of a bat) at a friend's place. She's just started a small veg patch...

Last year we had quite a lot. They seemed to like the aubergine plants, so I paid special attention to them first thing in the morning while it was still cool and managed to get and kill a fair few. The winter has been so mild they and any eggs will have survived. I hate the sight of them, as they're not only very destructive but ugly in the extreme.

[snowdrops]

There was a dead frog in my pond yesterday    also no spawn