Spring really is here (even if there is a stiff breeze accompanying it) and this picture really shows it…
What you can’t see so easily is the hawthorns coming out into leaf and the first of the hedgerow blossoms bursting out.
After some overnight rain before a chilly dawn, the view on my way to the station this morning was lovely. With the sun just creeping over the horizon and a mistiness covering the fields, I had to stop and take a few photos.
My lunchtime walk was under a completely clear blue sky and it has stayed like that all afternoon. I could feel the warmth from the sun but the view was deceptive as a very chilly easterly wind took away the sense that it was spring.
However, spring is here and, after a forecast frost tomorrow morning, the temperatures will start to reflect it, for a few days at least. Hopefully we will have a trip down to Kew Gardens on Saturday to see what spring is like in one of our favourite places.
Yesterday was one of those late winter/early spring days that demonstrated the transition between the seasons. I woke to a slight frost and mist lying low over the valley. Hovering just over freezing and with a clear sky, it was a stunning dawn.
A few winter thrushes came to a nearby tree as I looked over the sheep fields while I could hear two great spotted woodpeckers drumming and a calling green woodpecker. With a tentative dawn chorus the birds of two seasons were making themselves heard.
At lunchtime I walked out of the back door and was hit by a warmth I hadn’t felt for months. I could feel the bright sun on my face but it was the warm breeze that really made the difference. The temperature has topped out in the low ‘teens’ Celsius and in just a few hours the seasons had changed.
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…
Daft Mumblings 