March - a Spring interlude

Sun - since early March the earth has gradually been drying out, with dry winds predominating.

The 16th March has been the best spring day so far - a very fine day from the start.

A brilliant day for the first sightings of butterflies. A Comma was seen on 24th February but on this warm March day butterflies were flying in numbers, adding colour to the riverside.

 5 Brimstones were seen flying strongly along the river course, surveying the vegetation.

Looking at the Brimstones I saw a grey wagtail low down on the bank 'beach', intent on collecting a 

beak full of twigs - carefully selected nesting material. It was a very smart male in breeding plumage with brilliant yellow markings and a black bib. There must be a female nearby.

Sure enough a while later I saw the pair flying from the river in a circle and back down, following each other.

Lesser Celandine covering the river banks - more this year, despite the floods

A fine kestrel hovered for a while over the river, quite close and there was loud song from robins and wrens but the loudest and most persistent song - a real sign of spring came from new arrivals, the chiffchaffs, the first of the summer migrants. At least 7 were visible foraging in the trees along the river.

It was good to see numbers of redwing still present in the same location as before, busy foraging with some singing out of sight in a thicket.
Starlings were whistling from their usual day-roost thicket and goldfinches singing in the ivy. A green woodpecker was heard calling (Yaffling) loudly and a nuthatch was calling in an oak. Blackbirds were foraging on the ground and under the hedgerows sparrows, dunnocks and a few chaffinches were busy feeding.

Amongst the Willow catkins were two Peacock butterflies -

here is one of them in the tangle of branches.

Two Comma butterflies were nearby amongst the brambles and no less than 5 Small Tortoiseshell butterflies ranging along the sunny and sheltered riverbank. After a good summer last year, many have been successful in overwintering here.
It was good to see many large Bumblebees and a few Honeybees too, amongst the Blackthorn just blossoming and the Willow catkins too.

Vertical river banks where the earth has been scoured by floodwater 

but with vegetation already forming green cover.

This weather is too good to last!