An often cold, grey and unseasonable month but with many things growing, brightening and yielding rewarding close observation.
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| Brilliant colour after a grey day |
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| Brilliant blue: Marabella plum seedling |
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| Friday fish supper |
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| St Peter Mancroft Church, Norwich |
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| Almond seedling, garden |
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| Barn Owl, first seen this year |
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| Sunset, Tufted Duck |
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| Trying some new shoes |
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| Flooded freshmarsh |
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| Stinking Hellebore |
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| Pheasant roulade, mash and red cabbage |
I was pheasantly-surprised by the tenderness of my dinner.
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| Egyptian Geese |
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| Ruddy Shelduck, Wigeon |
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| Egyptian Goose |
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| Waxwing |
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| Waxwings |
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| Chilly times, Blakeney |
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| Game trail |
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| Away I go, Great Tit |
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| What's this at my pocket? |
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| Dog's Mercury, Bluebell shoots, Ladybird |
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| Ahead of the deluge: Heron, Spoonbills |
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| Ahead of the deluge: Wood pigeons flying in land |
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| Cley east bank |
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| Reaching the beach and finding a rainbow |
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| Great Black-backed Gulls |
Gulls flew westward from the storm.
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| Black-tailed Godwits |
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| Rainbow fragment over the land |
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| Herons, Egrets, Marsh Harrier |
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| Spoonbills |
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| Tumbling Lapwing |
One of my most favourite sounds of spring: displaying lapwings
Displaying Lapwing whistling
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| "Early spring" salade niçoise |
Mediterranean summer and spring first crops met in an "early spring" salad niçoise: supplemented with home-grown peashoots, cress, radish sprouts and broad bean leaves. In the mean-time, radishes, beetroot, broad beans, courgettes and tomatoes are grown on for summer.
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| At Lynford Arboretum |
At Lynford Arboretum I add a few more birds to my 2024 list: Yellowhammer, Hawfinch, Brambling.
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| Yellowhammer in the frame |
On the 18th, the quest for a Horse with the Golden Saddle leads me on a drive down to London: it rained all the way. Red Kites, Buzzards and a Kestrel were observed, glimpsed momentarily as by every birder/naturalist who drives their own vehicle.
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| Mute Swans on the river Yare |
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| 5mph for the path ahead... |
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| Buzzard |
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| Blackthorn blossom |
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| Lesser Celandine |
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| Cuckoo flower |
19th March: Cuckoo flower was spotted by the river Yare. It will be a month at least before the cuckoo is calling, but they're on their return: tracking shows cuckoos have moved west from the Congo, and are fattening themselves up in West Africa ahead of their non-stop flight across the Sahara.
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| Comfrey |
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| Waxing half-moon at sunset |
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| Dive on in. Common Carder Bee, Dandelion |
By the 25th, Dandelion flowers opened.
Ladybirds were also seen in more numerous numbers. Many found shelter in the Rose Campion.
Blackfly have been spotted on the cherries, and greenfly numerous also. Perhaps another good year for them, as the previous. I was grateful for the blue tits and busy wren that were seen plucking some of these prey from the garden roses and trees.
A nub on one of my Elder saplings is revealed to be an elderflower forming: the first of my many, varied saplings to flower.
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| Ladybird, Rose Campion |
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| Wisteria flowerbuds |
Flowerbuds appeared on the wisterias, copper-cased with purple tips.
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| Cherry 'Spring Glow' blossom |
On the 25th, I planted a new tree in the front garden.
Blossom remained on the newly-planted Cherry-plum tree, despite some rather fierce gales. Copper-toned leaves started to unfurl.
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| Chiffchaff, garden |
The Chiffchaff returned, a cherished singer of spring, woodlands and childhood. One visited the garden, singing from the crown of the silver birch before hunting for prey amongst the twiggery. Chiffchaffs were heard regularly as I gardened, and when I walked far afield.
Chiffchaff singing
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| Blackbird, garden |
Blackbirds were seen regularly, a male guarding a female most often. Sometimes a squabble between rival males occurred.
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| Silver Birch, garden |
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| Blakeney harbour |
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| Herring Gull |
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| Off for a walk |
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| River Stiffkey |
On the 30th, hoverflies seemed all-apparent, their drone a welcome addition to the humming of queen bees heard and seen this month. Spring was apparent in the blossom, insect humming and swelling of birdsong heard this month.
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| Almond seedling |
This month I was delighted to find a green shoot growing from an old almond husk, a seedling from my cherished almond tree which died in 2022. The old almonds from this tree are numerous in my garden borders, and I never expected that anything would come from them. I found another almond, split with a root, and potted it: it has since grown on well.
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| Almond blossom, garden 2019 |
Something was always worth noting whilst I wandered the garden. Many flowers, buds and shoots, sprouted and flourished. The snowdrops, crocuses and narcissi all wilted away, but the fritillaries, forget-me-nots, hyacinths and primroses took their places. Bluebell sprouts were observed, spring snowflake also: two of the many promises for the month ahead.
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| Double-header: Snakeshead Fritillary, garden |
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Fragrant Alexanders on the wayside made for a tight-chested walk in the sun.
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| Blackthorn blossom |
Intermittent, tenuous singing from a Blackcap heard at the end of this month.
A beautiful liquid song, a cross between Robin and Blackbird to my ear, the "Northern Nightingale", ahead of all the beauty of spring's warblers yet to come, arriving soon from sub-Sahara, cuckoos too.
Blackthorn was in full bloom, and waning soon it seemed: earlier than last year.
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| Cherry blossom |
The familiar cherry was found in blossom earlier than previous years. A robin perched amongst them, singing an accompaniment to a neighbouring Chiffchaff and stuttering Linnet.
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| Robin in cherry tree |
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| White-face, Pearl and Pied Cockatiel |
Visited a garden centre and their two 1-year old cockatiels for sale. Enjoyed seeing these beautiful, inquisitive and cheerful birds: I still sorely miss my cockatiel Maxi, who died last August.
The bright yellow of Oilseed rape appeared at once, it seemed. A bright counterpart to grey days: it was drizzly and wet for Easter and the last day of the month.
I found a sprout from one of the wisteria beans I sowed last year. A light excavation of the neighbouring-plug's soil yielded a second pale shoot.
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| Wisteria sprout |
