A summary of a fickle March:
The Beast from the East continued its attack into March - nevertheless by 3rd March many birds could be heard singing along the riverside with robins and song thrushes dominating and others showing clear signs of nesting, with calling nuthatches and chasing mallard ducks, chasing blue tits and great tits and calling chaffinches. By 13th March Lesser Celandine flowers were appearing - a sure sign of good weather, at least for a while:
Lesser Celandine pushing through layers of dry leaves into the sun.
On 14th the day was fine, with a common buzzard circling slowly over low trees along the river course. Nuthatches were calling again and several loud great tits, many house sparrows and robins. Wrens were vocal too along the river banks with the river still flowing muddy and fast. A grey heron flew over riverside trees in search of awakening amphibians. The following day, 15th blackbirds were singing strongly for the first time, after 25mm rain overnight.
On 17th the Beast from the East returned after a few balmy days, with snow.
By the end of the month it was losing its hold but the cold bite continued, with small birds and mammals retreating into the natural shelter of the banks:
A completely natural shelter on the riverside where broken tree trunks, roots, last-years dry nettle stems and bramble shoots arch over each other and tangle together - a choice place for wrens, dunnocks, robins and hibernating small mammals, insects and amphibians, well above the river flood level.
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