A Touch Of Spring

With the warmer weather over the last week a gentle touch of spring seems to be in the air,in the early morning dawn hours the birds are singing with renewed vigour ,blackbirds,song thrushes and great tits sounds filling the still air ,in the fields locally the lapwings have started their diving acrobatic displays looking for a mate and establishing territories,more and more flies are hatching and the frogs and toads have woken from their winters sleep.Owls are finding food available more easily as this recent owl pellet shows

owl pellet showing small shrew bones

Owls are not able to digest bones and fur so they regurgitate these up in the form of pellets you can find these under gate,fence posts and solitary trees with a wide view of the lying land these places are where the owl will watch for signs of life before setting off on his silent hunt.

early hover fly on colts foot

The early spring flowers are now coming out in force,most of them you will notice are yellow the reason being that flies see this colour differently to us, the colour they see makes the flowers stand out and they know there is a source of food for them.

lesser celandine

wild primrose

other flowers seen where dandelion,buttercup,dog mercury and daisy,all these providing early nectar for all species of flies,that in turn means the spiders are emerging to feast on this early bounty


early orb spider in the centre of the pic

Another wonderful find was a moth cocoon at the base of a small ash tree the pupae concealed in a web of hair that the caterpillar had weaved before pupating.


moth cocoon

Not all animals and birds made it through the winter though i also came across the sad sight of a swan skeleton that had perished in the cold months.More of this and more about early spring in my next post see you soon and happy nature watching Natureman Andy.