I have been reading the many tweets about spring arriving in various parts of the country with envy. We are still firmly in the grasping hands of winter in this part of West Norfolk and everything seems to be about two or three weeks behind everywhere else. Spring had appeared to start about a month ago, with much singing from the birds and I had even saw a greenfinch displaying in the middle of February, but the return of the cold winds caused everything to come to a grinding halt and spring had firmly recoiled.
The weather the day before had been bright and sunny and there was even a little bit of warmth in the air, but today it had returned to it's wintery, chilly (and a bit misty) norm. Winter isn't going to give itself up easily! True, the daffodils have finally bloomed, but there is still scant evidence of spring truly arriving yet. Three beautiful bramblings hiding in some silver birches in Redpoll Row, and two female lesser redolls close to the long pond were further confirmation that winter hasn't ceded defeat just yet.
But there was also some evidence that spring is, at least, trying to wrest winters grip away from us. A pair of trilling long-tailed tits came in quite close to me as I walked past a small bramble and I stopped to have a close look at these lovely birds. And to my surprise, I found they were actually putting the finishing touches to a nest of moss and cobwebs at the back of the bramble.
Then, on the opposite side of the trees where I had spotted the lesser redpolls, my attention was drawn to a small bird zipping about the outer branches of a birch. And (for me) this was the 'official' start of spring as I had found my first chiffchaff of the year.
So spring is definitely springing again, but it has a fight on its hands from winter. If I was writing a school report for spring, it would be: Good attempt, but must try harder.
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