An unseasonable month, with more joys found in the garden than out in the field.
My birthday had the worst weather for ever in my memory, but it didn't restrain me from the outdoors.
Warblers, butterflies, hoverflies and bees were welcomed, yet soon missed by mid-month onward due to the wet, windy, grey weather.
Gardening and cultivation continued, though all but for the fresh new green leaves (and cress!) seemed slow to grow. Oaks unfurled their leaves gradually, whilst beeches' buds remained closed.
New spring leaves, garden
Many things caught the observant-eye in the garden.
Lily of the valley shoots, curled, a delicate green, wholly-inedible tuile. I watched for the flowers.
Blue tits peeped into nest boxes. I wondered, will they bring material?
Blackbirds gathered food for nestlings, two females regular visitors to the garden.
Blackbird, garden
I potted-up this year's seedlings, and established of a new hedge: prickly native roses and trees.
A peek inside: Apricot seeding
Raindrops and new leaves, garden
A Chiffchaff passed through the garden. The first of the spring warblers.
Chiffchaff, garden
RAF A400: A particularly large bird over the garden.
Dandelions
Breezy by the cherry tree
Bluebell coming in to flower.
Ladybird on Forget-me-not, garden
Female Hairy-footed Flower Bee on Primrose
By the 9th, weather turned to being not-at-all spring-like. A succession of low fronts passed through.
A Blackcap heard and then seen in the garden was most welcome, the second of a succession of warblers to come...I awaited the call of my first Willow Warbler.
Blackcap in the birch, garden
Common Carder Bee on Wild Garlic
Female Orange-tip Butterfly on Alexanders
Holly Blue on Ivy
Crabapple Blossom
The pump house
Upon the path
Bluebells
My first Willow Warbler was heard in tandem with the first Sedge Warblers, returned from Africa.
A mid-month day of sunshine and above-average temperatures was followed by grey, windy and wet days, and unseasonable coldness, for the rest of the month.
I finished planting my hedge with 40mph+ gusts, thick rain and mizzle at my back, front, sides..!
A fierce north wind greeted me at the coast with charming regularity.
Blowing sand
Into the north wind...
Hair styled courtesy of the wind...
...and with the north wind behind me
An upward glance at Blickling rewarded me with my first swallows of this year. My first House Martins were seen at Holkham.
Swallow
Bullock, a watcher upon the hill
A trot round the old Iceni fort
Egyptian Goose, Greylag Geese, Cattle Egrets
Chiffchaff
Small White butterfly
A400 above the birch
Lily of the Valley, garden
Bad hair day for a Little Egret
Little Grebe with prey
Avocet
Juvenile Woodpigeon
The first fledgling to visit the garden was a Woodpigeon.
All month, Blackbirds and Starlings gathered food for nestlings. Blue Tits became less visible at the end of the month, presumed nesting.
Grey skies, Wisteria flower buds
At the end of the month, spring seemed in stasis. No butterflies, hoverflies, bees, warblers...
The Wisteria flower buds seemed halted in their growth, the budding roses on the cusp of opening. Only the grass seemed to flourish.
From the front window, I observed a Linnet juvenile being fed. These charming birds twittered and sang close by the windows all month.
The 29th, the sun promised warmth; the south wind stole it away. A bright day, nevertheless, which focused my senses forward to May and summer beyond. An Orange-tip butterfly visited the garden, welcomed back after all of the rain.
Silk satin skirts: Dusky Cranesbill flowerbuds
Green growth, blue skies
Mites attacked my two Wisteria seedlings, felling one and damaging the other. The surviving seedling was transported to a warm windowsill: sickbay. After a week or so, its leaves unfurled but its stalk remained perilously-thin. The seedling will be nurtured, but if it does not survive, I will attempt to grow more later this year.
Leaves to the sun: Wisteria seedling
The last day of the month brought bright skies, even if they clouded over, and many people enjoying the coast in one way or another. More evident than ever, birds busied themselves with the pressing need for reproduction, and survival. Fragrant Alexanders were joined by Cow Parsley; burgeoning mayflower supplemented by the first pristine elderflower sprays.
An often cold, grey and unseasonable month but with many things growing, brightening and yielding rewarding close observation.
Brilliant colour after a grey day
Brilliant blue: Marabella plum seedling
Friday fish supper
St Peter Mancroft Church, Norwich
Almond seedling, garden
Barn Owl, first seen this year
Sunset, Tufted Duck
Trying some new shoes
Flooded freshmarsh
Stinking Hellebore
Pheasant roulade, mash and red cabbage
I was pheasantly-surprised by the tenderness of my dinner.
Egyptian Geese
Ruddy Shelduck, Wigeon
Egyptian Goose
Waxwing
Waxwings
Chilly times, Blakeney
Game trail
Away I go, Great Tit
What's this at my pocket?
Dog's Mercury, Bluebell shoots, Ladybird
Ahead of the deluge: Heron, Spoonbills
Ahead of the deluge: Wood pigeons flying in land
Cley east bank
Reaching the beach and finding a rainbow
Great Black-backed Gulls
Gulls flew westward from the storm.
Black-tailed Godwits
Rainbow fragment over the land
Herons, Egrets, Marsh Harrier
Spoonbills
Tumbling Lapwing
One of my most favourite sounds of spring: displaying lapwings
Displaying Lapwing whistling
"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.
At Lynford Arboretum
At Lynford Arboretum I add a few more birds to my 2024 list: Yellowhammer, Hawfinch, Brambling.
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.
Mute Swans on the river Yare
5mph for the path ahead...
Buzzard
Blackthorn blossom
Lesser Celandine
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.
Comfrey
Waxing half-moon at sunset
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.
Ladybird, Rose Campion
Wisteria flowerbuds
Flowerbuds appeared on the wisterias, copper-cased with purple tips.
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.
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
Blackbird, garden
Blackbirds were seen regularly, a male guarding a female most often. Sometimes a squabble between rival males occurred.
Silver Birch, garden
Blakeney harbour
Herring Gull
Off for a walk
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.
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.
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.
Double-header: Snakeshead Fritillary, garden
Fragrant Alexanders on the wayside made for a tight-chested walk in the sun.
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.
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.
Robin in cherry tree
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.
Wisteria sprout
The first ice-cream van was heard yesterday; far off church bells today (louder in my childhood, and Scots pipemen). Light aircraft as ever, but sometime a lawnmower was heard. I took up my scythe and trimmed the thick spring grasses, despite the damp.
