Breeding time!

As light rapidly increases day after day, and temperatures rise - not so rapidly! life prepares for reproduction. Building up body condition, attracting or finding a mate, building a nest, laying eggs. No time to lose! Birds, frogs, invertebrates too. You can easily notice even in the middle of a city. This afternoon, after the light overnight rain, some frogs came our of their hiding places, and - with the smaller male tightly embracing the female - moved in search of a suitable pond for spawning.

Male blackbird singing atop a building

Female collecting nest lining material

A blue tit by its nest box Blue Tits pairs check their nest in the local wildlife garden

Carrion Crow pair collecting nest lining material. One of three pairs I have seen doing this only this week around town.

Chaffinches sing now regularly, strongly, with inexhaustible energy their monotonous phrase.

A Moorhen carries a large stick towards a nesting site in the park

Its partner sat, with head low and tail up, as if signalling where the nest should be built. When the Moorhen carrying the stick arrived, the other one pick it up and put it in place.

A sudden 'ke-ke-ke-ke' call alerted me, and as the displaying Sparrowhawk, with its undertail covert feathers spread out, passed over my head I took this lucky shot. 

Tonight, this male blackbird was collecting worms. To feed an incubating female or chicks already?

Note: all photos taken this week, except for the singing blackbird from the 20th of March.