Spring may finally be here
Apr 17th, 2013 by Chris
I don’t want to risk speaking too soon, but it is actually starting to look as if spring may finally have arrived. The temperature has risen sharply in the past few days, despite the wind, and even now at nearly 8pm it’s still 14.9°C outside.
But more to the point, there is a great tit in the nestbox and an egg. A few days ago there was very little going on—a bit of nesting material in there, but nothing you could really call a nest and certainly no sign of eggs. But in the last couple of days the nest has started to take shape, and today an egg has appeared.
And in the garden there is plenty of yellow to be seen. The daffs and narcissi have been around for a while, but we now have primroses, cow slips and at least two ranunculus species (that’s buttercups and such like). And not yellow, but a couple of days ago the snake’s head fritillaries flowered. Meanwhile, in the pond the frogs’ spawn has turned into tadpoles, although not that many considering how much spawn there was earlier. Perhaps it didn’t like the late frosts.