All it takes is a little bit of sunshine and splashes of colour return to the garden.
After all the rain the plants are ready for the big opening. There is not much pollen on the willow yet, these stamens were the only ones I saw and they were high up, but it won’t be long.
I saw my first blossom on the big plum tree in the garden. In warm years so many bees come to the plum tree when it is in flower that I can hear the buzz from about 100 metres away.
The red Camellia provides more than colour.
The thick layer of petals has been providing a comfortable B&B for this little halictes bee.
The dandelions are out and this one is being shared by a honey bee and a solitary Andrena bee. I look forward to the return of the bees and butterflies in the garden.
One returning visitor came as a surprise. My husband spotted him at the end of February and he is still with us.
He is a Barbastelle bat (Barbastella barbastellus). Barbastelle bats often pass the winter in underground caves or cavities. As he has decided to take up residence behind our living room shutter again I would presume he is starting to get active. Once again I presume that if I have been seeing butterflies during the day he will be finding moths (to which he is partial) during the night. I can keep an eye on him during the day by looking in sideways without disturbing him and I have noticed that he changes position between roosting on the wooden shutter and the stone wall of the house.
This means that it is the third year that we have noticed a Barbastelle bat in exactly the same place (see last year “A furry visitor”). They have been known to live for 23 years so it seems likely that it is the same individual.
The warm damp weather is ideal for the green tree frogs ( Hyla meridionalis). They have returned to bask in the sunshine in front of the dining room window. Often we hear them before we see them and they are difficult to see until one of them moves, as you can see on the picture above.
This is my favourite time of year in the garden as everything makes its first appearance.
a french garden 
What lovely creatures you have in your garden! A cute little bat and green frogs. Spring really is here at last and it is wonderful to see so much colour. I love your Camellia.
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My Camellia has had a hard life. It was one of the few plants I inherited in the garden. It was behind a limestone wall and always looked sick and never flowered. I finally decided to move it. It was quite large so I had to hack off the roots and branches. It has taken three years but although much smaller it is flowering and the stumps are all hidden by new growth. Amelia
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This time of the year is the best tonic for winter blues and your pictures prove it…I have never seen a bat let alone GREEN frogs…they are amazing.
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It is so good to get out into the garden and feel the sunshine on your back and check up on what has started to pop through. Amelia
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How lovely to see the bat again. It must feel quite at home.
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I think it must have decided that our shutter is its holiday home. They usually roost in trees during the summer. Amelia
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So much beauty and life! It’s great that your little bat friend returns.
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It does seem like a friend visiting us. We will be watching out for it next year too. Amelia
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Such lovely photos, thanks for sharing them. Can’t say I’m not jealous of your wonderful early spring. Still buried in 3 feet of snow in the northeast USA. My snowdrops, though, have poked through the frozen ground, stiff as tin soldiers. The imperative to grow and reproduce against adversity is amazing to witness.
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I love seeing snowdrops pushing through the snow, it makes them so special. I don’t know what happened to my snowdrops this year. I thought I had lost them all and now they are coming through much later with the crocus and lots of other flowers. Amelia
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Great to see things on the move again. Especially good to see the Barbastelle.
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With a bit of warmth and sunshine everything seems to shift into a different gear. Amelia
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Love the splashes of spring color. We are recovering from the newest snow storm, so it’ll be a little while before our flowers start popping up.
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I have been following the severe winter the USA is having this year. The temperatures and snowfalls are amazing. Amelia
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Oh! Here in the North West area of the U.S. (Oregon) we have had a gentle and warmish Winter with not much rain…quite different than the East side. Of course we may be in for fires in our forests this summer…
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Interesting pictures – we are a bit behind you here but there are distinct signs of spring and I have seen several honeybees and bumblebees on dandelions and celandine as well as on garden shrubs like mahonia and flowering cherry. Things are moving ahead.
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I noticed a bumblebee on our celandine too. We have a lot around here. I love their bright yellow but they don’t seem to be as popular with the bees as dandelions. Amelia
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It’s nice to have bats near the house – we have one that hangs around outside the balcony window every night, but in the daytime he seems to have a different spot. I must try and watch them more this year. The green frogs really are camouflaged well. Lovely photos and a beautiful Camellia. I hope your warm spring weather is coming our way as I am craving colour!
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I moved the Camelia three years ago from beside a limestone wall where it never flowered. It was quite big so I had to cut it back severely to move it and then suffer it looking stick like until this year when it has new branches and plenty of flowers. It was not really a risk as it was no good where it was but I am glad I took the trouble now. Amelia
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Thanks for the sharing and the encouragement. Isn’t it wonderful what a nice day will do for the garden…and the psyche?
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We have a sheltered patio outside the dining room that catches the sun so we can sit out there for our tea and pretend its summer. With the sunshine on the garden it certainly lifts the spirits. Amelia
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Lovely to see spring arriving in your garden Amelia. It always comes sooner to you than here in Surrey, but we’re getting the first glimmers now and we have more than a dozen clumps of frogspawn in the pond so the frogs obviously think we’re over the worst now!
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I checked out my nearest pond and there was no sign of frogspawn. I’ll have to venture further afield. Amelia
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Aaah very exciting! thanks for the photos.
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I knew you would like to see the bees busy again. Amelia
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Lovely photos, and I particularly like the information about bats living that long. I had no idea. And I had to look twice to see the wonderful green frogs. It really looks like spring has arrived. Lucky you!
BW
Julian
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We should not get much really cold weather from now on. We are being treated to a warm sunny spell at the moment. These spells usually increase in frequency and length until summer actually arrives. Amelia
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Love seeing the little bees. The spring melt has only just begun where I am.
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I’m glad you like seeing the bees. Having the bees around is an important part of the garden to me. Amelia
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Is there a light that you leave on at night that attracts moths? That might explain the bat.
It’s nice to see so many flowers. I can’t wait until it happens here!
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We do not leave any lights on at night and the street lighting for the hamlet goes off at 10.30 p.m. They can hunt at dusk and will fly and return to their roost during the night. Amelia
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Very envious of your exotic wildlife. I love bats and frogs, both of which are quite happy to munch less attractive bugs and pests. Lucky you 🙂
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It’s good to have company in the garden. For me it is all the solitary bees that pass through that I enjoy the most, and so many people don’t seem to notice them. Amelia
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We have our two collared doves, Daphne and Dudley, who are always around and cooing gently to one another. Better than seagulls any day.
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We have a pair of ring doves too but we have not got around to naming them yet!
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Naming is a must. Our seagulls are called Ian and Myra, after the moors murderers, and the parakeet is Percy. For some reason the blackbirds are simply referred to as Mr and Mrs Blackbird, whilst the sparrows are too numerous to tell apart. Dan
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Very nice post . . . as I look out at our snow-covered yard,
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The United States has really had a severe winter this year. Still spring is on its way. Amelia
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Those frogs blended in so well I missed them at first. We can hear frogs in the wet field, but we seldom see them. That’s fascinating about the bats being able to live 23 years. I was under the impression they liked to be in a group at night. This one seems to be happy by itself.
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There is not a lot known about bat behaviour in Europe as there are less and less of them and they are difficult to track. Barbastelle bats like to roost in trees and I like to imagine that he is on route to join his friends somewhere in a forest. Amelia
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Very envious of your bat. My last house had a large colony of serotines and I miss watching them emerge at dusk to hunt. Dave
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I think anything that actually chooses to live with you becomes very special. We have other bats that fly around the garden in the summer evenings but I have never seen them during the day and I don’t know what they are so they score less points with me than resident bats. Amelia
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It’s my favourite time of year too, everything fresh and new. I love your bat visitor.
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He is off on his travels again but I hope he returns next year. Amelia
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Have you named your Barbastelle bat? He is beautiful! I love your observations of nature returning to the garden in spring 🙂
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He hasn’t got a name. You are good with names. Any ideas? Amelia
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Barnaby.
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That is a brilliant name! However, we are rather taken with using it for the Barn Owl, thank you. Unfortunately, that now leaves the bat without a name, again.
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A bat without a name… that’s a post surely.
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