I woke to a hard frost with the temperatures down to -5c and a bright orange sunrise across the fields. Unfortunately my desk beckoned and I had to start my working week rather than heading out to look at the view.
However, a lunchtime stroll down the lane revealed a perfectly clear blue sky and a warming sun over the now rapidly greening fields.
There was a buzzard soaring over my head, a kestrel calling in a nearby tree and yellowhammers in the hedgerow. The early spring vision would have been complete if one of the ewes in the field had produced the first lambs but they’re not quite ready.
At least, I’m working from home today and I’m lucky enough to be able to wander down the lane like this; the next two days I’ll be out and about and will miss my lunchtime break looking over the fields.
In the brilliant early spring sunshine, I went for my first cycle of the year this afternoon. As the photo below shows, the weather was stunning, with a totally clear blue sky and a bright sun warming my clothing. However, that clothing was still the winter cycling kit as the temperature was only in single figures – but with the sun and some pedalling, I was very toasty.
There weren’t many other signs of spring around; only a few patches of snowdrops in some of the villages and a single field with lambs. The roads were still very wintery with mud in some of the dips and run-off from the waterlogged fields. I’m hoping it won’t be too long until I can swap from road bike to hybrid and head onto the byways and bridleways but I suspect there’ll need to be a long period of dry weather to make the current muddy fields passable.
After doing a lot of night running over the course of winter, now might be the time to move over to cycling in the coming lighter evenings.
Meteorological spring has arrived and with it has come some very welcome spring weather. We woke on Saturday to a frost but also blue sky, and the sun stayed out all day. Today, it is much the same and it looks set to stay this way for the coming week. On Saturday we had to get out into the fine weather and, amongst our various stops, we paid a visit to Summer Leys nature reserve. While the weather was spring-like, the wildlife was still very much of the winter, with the waders and wildfowl that have been staying over the colder months.
Unusually for me at the moment, I actually remembered to take my camera with me. Whilst I didn’t get too many shots, I did catch this image of make shovelers chasing a female around a corner of the large lake at the reserve. There were quite a few of them, seemingly stirred into a bout of breeding activity by the change in the weather.
The other image I got was of the glossy ibis which has been frequenting the reserve for many months and attracting a few extra visitors Summer Leys. It was pretty easy to find yesterday, feeding exactly where one of the local bird blogs said it had been.
After a bit of garden work this morning, this afternoon I’m going to head out for my first cycle of the year. I can’t quite believe I haven’t cycled at all so far this year but running is generally my winter exercise activity. Now it’s time to transition back again.
This week our garden seems to have been invaded by young birds, thankfully including the noisy starlings who hatched in our loft. We now have a group of around 50 starlings (only five from the loft) coming to feed several times a day but alongside them we have a many others. We started off quietly a few weeks ago with a young black bird but now we, alongside we starlings, we have fledgling robins, goldfinches, greenfinches and jackdaws. However, earlier in the week I was distracted from making our evening meal by a recently fledged four-some of wrens. I could hear there high-pitched squeaks coming from our garden wall and recorded some video on my phone. I then ran to get my camera and managed the shots below…
We returned home on Friday from a week on the Northumberland coast (more on that later) to find that more of the migratory birds had arrived for the summer.
Along with a spell of warm weather had come the swallows, house martins and swifts to the sky above our house. These swifts in particular bring joy to me and the sight of them racing across the village is something I miss through the time they are gone.
We also took a walk yesterday at the National nature reserve at Titchmarsh, only about 30 minutes from us. There were further summer migrants to be found including so many warblers including black cap, whitethroat, sedge warbler, reed warbler and garden warbler. There were also a small number of common terns and a very distant calling cuckoo. Whilst not on the list of long distance migrants to the UK, internally maybe, we also heard the distinctive call of a booming bittern, a sound that I can’t recall whether I’ve heard before.
I’ve just had my usual lunchtime walk (when working at home) and seen a few of those migrants over head and heard them in the hedgerows. It really does feel like spring is finally here.
Was a lovely sunny one and just down the lane to the sheep fields. Spring has finally arrived and the walk was scented by the blossoming hawthorn and cow parsley.
There was a small but nice selection of birds highlighted by my first Northamptonshire redstart, heard only, in a far hedgeline.
The photo below shows just what a lovely day it is…
It’s been a pretty poor spring so far with the weather being cold and often very wet. Today, despite the forecast we decided to head out to Badby Wood near Daventry to see the bluebells. Were weren’t disappointed and the damp weather meant that there possible weren’t as many people around as there would have been in bright sunshine.
Here’s a shot of the cathedral-like little valley in the woods, carpeted with bluebells and roofed by the high beams of mature trees with their bright green leaves emerging.
It’s been quite a few weeks since we last went for a country walk. We had to do a few household tasks yesterday, probably made a little less unwelcome by the weather being pretty unpleasant, particularly in the morning. However, waking this morning on what looked like a beautiful spring day, we headed out for a walk around part of Rutland Water.
Since we moved to Northamptonshire three years ago, Rutland is now less than an hour away. We have been to the wildlife trust nature reserve a couple of times over that time but today we decided to do a five mile circuit around the village of Hambleton and the peninsula on which it sits. The whole walk was under a mix of bright sunshine and fluffy spring clouds. The strength of the sun can now be really felt, being towards the end of March, but as soon as cloud covered it over, even fleetingly, there was still a chill in the air, especially out in the brisk wind.
There were signs of spring all along the walk: in the fields, along the hedgerows, in the woods and along the shoreline. There are new lambs in the fields, hawthorns are now coming out into leaf and the blackthorn into blossom, and there are migrant birds starting to appear and sing.
I would like to pay a little more attention to the wild flowers this spring and there were plenty on the walk. There were delicate primroses in amongst the trees and celandines on the grass verges in addition to the blossom in the hedgerows. There must also be a great display of bluebells in some of the shoreside woodlands as there were big swathes of them bursting up through the leaf litter.
After what was a stunning five-mile walk we headed to the nature reserve. Firstly to look at a possible new purchase; it’s about time I bought a proper wildlife watching telescope and I just wanted another look at one before I take the plunge (possibly). The last visit of the day was to Manton Bay to see the newly arrived ospreys. The established pair have settled in and are already mating regularly, so it might not be long until the first eggs are laid.
This did remind me of one of my old usual spring haunts, at the Glaslyn Wildlife osprey nest protection site near Porthmadog in North Wales. I volunteered there for a number of years, spending quite a few nights but also many days in the old caravan amongst the wet meadows and drystone walk, just a couple of hundred metres from the nest. It was a joyful experience being surrounded by wildlife and helping to protect this beautiful but rare species. I saw this morning that the lucky volunteers no longer have to sit in an old caravan but have a new hide, perched up on stilts to avoid the water from the too often flooding river. The ospreys at the Glaslyn have yet to return this spring but I’ll be keeping an eye out on the webcams over the coming days.
I’ll finish this post with a few images of the lovely spring walk today…
I’m very fortunate to live in a quiet village and even more lucky to have views of the countryside from my home office window (at least when the leaves aren’t on the trees). Working from home yesterday gave me quite a few wildlife sightings without even leaving the house.
Sitting at my desk I saw a small flock of winter-visiting redwings in the paddock opposite as well as the muntjac I now fairly regularly see. There was also a calling green woodpecker in the trees beyond.
In the late afternoon there was a winter visitor to our bird table, a brambling. I very rarely see one of these striking finches but we’ve had one or two visit, staying for a couple of weeks or so, both this winter and last.
As night began to fall, I saw my first bats off the year, racing around the house and trees behind us, where we so often do. Due to there size, they were undoubtedly pipistrelles but I didn’t have my detector out to be able to tell whether they were common or soprano.
A last welcome sight of the day, just before it was time to go to bed, was our first hedgehog of the year. They’ve actually been coming quite regularly to eat in our feeding box over the course of the winter, only missing in the properly cold periods. We’ve caught them on our trailcam a few times but this was the first sight with my own eyes.
The day would have been even better if I’d heard a little owl when I went to stand by my open office window as I went to be but I can’t have everything, I suppose. Last year I didn’t hear them as often as the previous two springs we’ve lived here, so I’m hoping for a bit of a return this year.
I’m working at home again today, so hopefully a bit more wildlife watching from the house.
A Saturday and a Sunday morning spent working and putting together flat-pack furniture wasn’t the most inspiring way to end the week. However, after finishing the same set of bookshelves for the second time, we headed out to one of our closest nature reserves at Pitsford Water reservoir.
While putting my tools away at home, I had felt some early March warmth from the sun peeping out between the clouds. As we left the car and walked down to the water, the cloud dispersed and the sun’s strength was a bit of a surprise after such wet and grey weather recently. The warmth could be felt on our dark clothes being heated by the rays and the hide we went into felt like someone had left some (non-existent) radiators on. With no wind to speak of, and the cloud clearing further, this was a first real taste spring weather, despite the temperature still being some way below 10 degrees celsius.
We decided to head for Pitsford to see what might me a last sight of the wintering wildfowl before many of them head off to breed further north in the UK and a long way beyond. Given the relatively mild (if damp) first part of the year, it wasn’t a surprise to see that wildfowl numbers had already dropped significantly from their mid-winter highs. Pitsford is a winter home to thousands of birds with large numbers of widgeon, teal, mallard and tufted duck as well as a range of other waterbirds.
One of my favourite winter visitors to the reservoir is the splendidly feathered goldeneye – well, at least the male is, with the female being much more drab. They have already started displaying and pairing up, with the males in their finery performing a slightly odd manoeuvre, stretching their necks out and throwing their heads back, with a cartoon-like duck call. A (not very good) video of them doing this is below.
While the weekend is already sadly drawing to a close, our short walk did give me a little pick-me-up before settling in for Sunday dinner (maybe after a run in the last of the sunshine).
Daft Mumblings 