Springtime In March

The last week has seen more signs of springtime with flowers and insects starting to emerge for their first taste of the ever warming sun ,the birds are belting out a ever louder dawn chorus and pairs of swirling and acrobatic finches,sparrows and tits are commonplace in the gardens and parks,a real reminder of winter just passed was the discovery of a young swans remains ,a victim of the cold snap we had in February

young swans remains

This young swan was one of 7 reared last year the others and mum and dad migrated successfully and the parent birds have just returned to hopefully have another good breeding season,early last week during a wood time walk i came across a path of very early bluebells their blue trumpet shaped flowers heralding the arrival of spring time telling all the other flowers its time to awake, also spotted where two early wood anemone's

early bluebells

wood anemone's

The early emergence of these spring flowers usually means that the first bumble bees will not be far behind, and sure enough over the next three hours i spotted 5 large queen bumble bees that had emerged from their winter sleeping quarters, the bees spotted were buff tailed and white tailed with a solitary wood bee queen much smaller than the others .These early queens must feed hard and fast as they then find a suitable nest to lay their first eggs and the food that they gather in the early days will provide nutrition for the worker bees that will emerge from the first eggs, the queen will then let the workers look after her and the nest while she concentrates on egg laying i will go in to more details about bees in future posts.

queen buff tail bumble bee

much smaller early bumble bee queen

another wonderful early sign of spring is the emergence of butterflies that have hibernated over the winter here is one of the three i have seen so far a tortoiseshell that was sunning itself

tortoiseshell butterfly

i also came across a tree that had been recently marked by a large badger

badger scratches sharpening claws and marking territory

my final pictures are of a native orange ladybird that was seeking out early sun rays and a wonderful vibrant yellow gorse that looked magnificent in the sunshine.

native orange lady bird

yellow gorse
more next week as i go for a walk round beacon fell, enjoy all the early springtime wildlife and keep your eyes open for queen bees   nature man  Andy