Signs Of Spring at long last

Having suffered from flu over the last 6 days, I thought it was time to get out and get a little fresh air, without overdoing it and undoing all the good work put in by my lovely wife.

A slow and steady few miles in the warm late March sun should be OK then 😃

Walking through the trees at Freeport there was the lovely sound of a Chiff Chaff singing from high in a tree top - the first of the year! Below it Coal Tits and Long-tailed Tits were foraging in the shrubs.

Out along the Trans Pennine Trail to the footpath running beside a long hedgerow, I hoped to see lots of finches but there were very few indeed. 2 Lapwing were displaying though and 3 Skylark were up and singing.

In the hedgerow I spotted a few early Blackthorn blossoms opening up. These are a bit later than last year:

Blackthorn blossom

Blackthorn are almost identical to hawthorn bushes and the easy way to tell them apart at this time of year is that blackthorns flower before their leaves appear, whereas hawthorns don't flower until their leaves are already out - so much later in Spring.

A single Brown Hare was running along a ploughed field. Would have been nice to see a few mad March hares boxing and whatever!

Coming back two Yellowhammers were singing, but only the first part of their song. Must still be too early for them to invest time and effort in the full song.

Almost back home and I came across the first frog spawn of the year in a large puddle. There is no future for these unfortunately, unless we have continuous rain between now and August.

Frog spawn in a puddle

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