Spring is in the air and it’s time for all creatures great and small to start doing what the birds and the bees do best – yes – it’s time for some good old fashioned sex.

Everywhere you look at this time of year you can see all types of fauna paired up and ready to make whoopie. During the past few days I’ve made the most of the weather and spent a fair amount of time wondering round Queens Park, Bolton. As well as the usual suspects of Sparrows, Great Tits, Blue Tits, Long-tailed Tits, Ducks and Geese the Green Dock Beetles seem to have come out of hiding earlier this year and are certainly making the most of it.

As well as these beautiful little bugs the new growth on the Hazel and Alder is covered in deep blue Alder Leaf Beetles getting busy in the making little beetles department.

No fishing for a while as we’ve been making the most of the weather and planting a few flowers and more veg. in the garden but we’re going to Anglesey soon for a week which theoretically should coincide with the Bass arriving – at least that’s what we’re hoping…

With the Daffodils showing and the wild Garlic and Bluebells just itching to burst into flower we’ll be seeing lambs soon and I can’t wait, this Winter seems to have been a long one…

The trees in Queens Park are showing catkins and all the wild bulbs of Garlic, Bluebells and Daffodils are now well on there way although not quite far enough to show any flowers.

Although the weather hasn’t been great and it looks like another cold period is on the way this week our Snowdrops are out and the Crocuses are almost showing colour. In fact things in the garden are definitely ‘on the move’ and we need to get out and do some after-winter pruning and tidying up before it gets to far ahead of us.

But there is a big fly in the ointment to our plans, whether it’s gardening, walking, fly fishing or sea fishing. This is the time (admittedly when the sea fishing is a bit naff) that we have our yearly ‘must decorate the <fill in a room> room’. Yep, we’re decorating. This time though it’s a bit of a big one.

We want a new carpet to cover the wooden floor in the lounge and dining room as it was a bit chilly last winter, which means we needed to work out what to do with the old hearth / fireplace. The hearth / fireplace is gaining a Stockton 5 wood burner so we’ve painted the dining room to give us somewhere to put stuff while that gets done then we’ll paint the lounge once the guys at Firebarn have installed it.

After last weekends painting marathon it was a relief to come into work on Monday – for a bit of a rest…

Not much unusual in the way of birdlife although I’ve seen the Kingfisher a few times this week flying up and down the River Croal, hopefully looking for suitable nesting sites, and on Monday I saw a Teal on the river, a new Queens Park ‘tick’ for me.

Work is continuing on the lower pond where the rangers are building some fishing platforms on the recently dredged lake. Hopefully they’ll move the fish back into the pond before Spring kicks in properly so the local coarse anglers can try their hand at catching some of the local Carp. It looks good and it’s great to see the work continuing to improve the quality of the ponds.

There’s also a bit of work going on at near the Southern end of the park where I think they’re making a new play area or car park – I’m not entirely sure – but it’s refreshing to see the local council is still going ahead with improvements where so many others would have cancelled them due to budget cuts.

Our pre-Christmas fly fishing / casting tuition was cancelled due to the weather so Mike Roden re-scheduled it for last weekend. Four brave souls met up in some fairly nasty weather with Mike at Curley’s Fly Fishery nr. Bolton and after a quick natter moved over the road to the park as the lakes were still frozen.

As we suspected we’d picked up a few bad habits since our last lessons with Mike but after a couple of hours we’d managed to iron most of them out and arranged to meet up in a month to continue our lessons after we’ve had time to practice all (or at least what we can remember) Mike taught us. We were going to call back in at Curley’s for lunch but it was packed so on our way home we called in at the Blue Anchor in Bretherton for a bite to eat and a pint.

The following day (Sunday) as Mere Beck, our local fly fishing water consists of small lakes interconnected with moving water we went for an afternoon session to see if we could put into practice a few of the techniques for accuracy we’d picked up the day before and maybe trick a trout or two out into the open water from under the ice.

Alas, no fish wanted to come and play but we had a lovely afternoon, eventually calling it a day as the sun set and the temperature started to plummet.

So, unlike my first sea fishing trip of the year, my first fly fishing trip resulted in a blank but I didn’t mind, fly fishing is just as relaxing as sea fishing and sometimes catching something, although it would have been nice, would just intrude upon the peace.

Thankfully the weather hasn’t been too extreme here in Lancashire these past couple of weeks although we have had some very cold days which without the snow feels a bit like we’ve been ripped off.

Last Monday was a case in point where it was so cold the fog was freezing in the air and you could see ice crystals suspended in front of your face. It did look great once I got out of the car in Bolton but driving to work down the M61 through the ice laden air was a little bit interesting to say the least.

I did manage to get out for a walk to Queens Park where all the plants were laden with crystals of frozen fog.

And I thought clearing out my parents pond was hard work...

The weather this past week has been truly miserable so we haven’t done any type of fishing, indeed it’s been so bad that even getting lunch has been a pre-winter test of my waterproofs.

I managed to get out yesterday without getting soaked and during my usual walk round Queens Park I came across this extreme case of pond dipping. I remember using a net to catch things out of a pond but this seems a little overkill…

What they’re doing is removing all the silt and accumulated junk from the bottom in preparation for re-building the edges and adding fishing platforms. All the fish from the pond were moved months ago to an adjacent one and the birds moved once the heavy machinery turned up. The local Heron was having a field day picking out small fish and frogs that couldn’t be moved while the water was only a few inches in places.

On a fishing related note, we’ve got a couple of ‘proper’ fly fishing rods but not really given them a work out yet – hopefully we’ll get out this coming weekend to give them a proper try, weather permitting.

Were they in Queens Park where I’d seen the adult and been looking all week? Were they hell… this morning I parked the car and not  3 feet from the door was a mass of tiny yellow and black warriors.Looking back at last year I think they’re a bit behind but who can blame them – it was a bit of a chilly start to the year…

Luckily I had the ‘baby’ camera with me, the Canon Powershot A640 so I was able to get a relatively good close-up although the breeze made it a bit tricky. The more I use the A640 the more I like it even though I’ve had it for ages. Sometimes I get fixated in thinking that the EOS 450D with all it’s lenses and gizmos is always better and most of the time it is but I can put the Powershot in my pocket, it takes good pictures and it’s macro facility is astounding so from now on when I go out deliberately to take a few photographs I’m going to take them both.

Spotted a Comma butterfly newly hatched and hanging of it’s old crysalis yesterday but didn’t have a camera with me but I’ve got my eye on another pupae which hopefully should ‘hatch’ soon – it would be good to grab a shot of the butterfly emerging but the weather is a bit touch and go in the North West at the moment and catching it at that stage will need a fair bit of luck.

Pretending to be a wasp, Hoverfly (Chrysotoxum elegans)

If there’s one thing we know how to do well in this country it’s the nature documentary – hasn’t BBC Springwatch been great and we’re only into week one. Needless to say, with the beautiful weather we’ve been having and being a bit inspired by Springwatch I ventured out to Queens Park in Bolton during my lunch hour to see what mini beasts I could snap.

Lovely colours on these tiny mating Green Dock Beetles

There were tiny metallic green beetles on all the Dock along the edge of the River Croal which I later learned (by the powers of the internet) were Green Dock Beetle (Gastrophysa viridula). The male above is obscuring an egg laden female but I managed to grab a photo of another that ha shaken off her amorous friends.

Gravid (with eggs) Green Dock Beetle female

You can see just how many eggs she is carrying as her abdomen is so swollen. Sticking with these little green beauties I spotted a cluster of their yellow eggs on the underside of the Dock so I’ll be keeping an eye on these to see when they hatch.

It was also interesting, once I ‘got my eye in’ just how many different species of insect can be seen in a town park. There’s nothing unusual about Queens Park, it has all the usual ponds, trees, grass with a mixture of untended patches but this seems to provide an excellent habitat for all sorts of creatures.

The first photograph is one such. I’m sure we’ve all seen Hoverflies but have we ever actually looked at them? I know I haven’t but after sitting still for a while the one above just came and sat right in front of me – it would have been rude not to photograph him. I’ve checked on the internet and I’m fairly sure it’s a normal Hoverfly (Chrysotoxum elegans) but I’m no insect expert so I’m willing to be corrected. It’s completely harmless unless you’re about the size of an aphid but mimics the markings of a Wasp to try and fool predators into not eating it.

Mating pair of Common Blue Damselflies

And it wouldn’t be much of a photography trip at this time of year without at least one image of these beautiful Common Blue Damselflies (Enallagma cyathigerum). There are more this year than I’ve seen for some time and the larger of the ponds was covered in mated pairs laying the eggs of the next generation.

One thing that was lacking was the usual butterfly suspects but after spotting a patch of nettles that we’re rapidly being demolished I noticed a group of well grown Red Admiral caterpillars munching them down to their flower tops. Hopefully we’ll see the adults later in the year.

It was around this time last year that we had the huge influx of Painted Lady butterflies and although I’ve not seen any yet, hopefully with recent hot spell will convince them to fly North once more.

All of the photo’s we’re taken using the ‘standard’ 18-55mm kit lens that came with the Canon EOS450D and although I’m sure a dedicated macro lens would be sharper and give me more options I’m happy with the results.

No Springwatch till next Monday and more hot weather forecast – looks like i’ll be taking a few more…

Most of the migrants such as Swallows are starting to head south but still the insect life continues to flourish. One such lunchtime visit to Queens Park in Bolton resulted in some fine views of some Brown Hawker (Aeshna grandis) dragonflies hunting down butterflies over the pond, hell to take photos of in flight but a bit simpler once they settle to lay eggs.

Hiding along the pathway through the wood that grows alongside the River Croal in the park were a few Speckled Wood (Pararge aegeria) butterflies trying to avoid being eaten by the speedy Hawkers. I’ve never spent the time to look at these properly before, just seeing them for small brown butterflies, they’re a lovely looking insect with great markings and clearly defined spots. I tried to get a photo of the Small White’s to compare the Green Veined ones we saw on Anglesey but they wouldn’t stay still.

We’ve canceled our sea fishing trip for Sunday as the weather is going to be grim so we’re going to Southport Flower Show on Saturday instead to get some ideas for the back garden. The plan is get there early to avoid the crowds but no doubt we’ll stay far to long and get caught in the traffic on the way home, I’m looking forward to it though, I haven’t been to the flower show since I was a lad with my parents.