Passed with flying colours!

In complete contrast to my previous visit to the Gaywood Valley, spring has truly sprung and warm weather has settled across the whole country. I was finally able to leave my gloves at home and spend an enthralling day looking at the wildlife.

There are more chiffchaffs around now and are actually calling. This is one of the best sounds of spring for me - a demonstration that the cold days of winter are passing, with the promise of the warmer days to come. A superb male yellowhammer was present, standing out like a sore thumb in the bare branches of a hawthorn. I didn't hear it singing today, but did hear it a few days ago in a different location.

When I entered the valley itself, I was greeted by a pair of roe deer bounding through the reeds ahead of me, a pair of hares playing kiss-chase very slowly around a field to the right, and a pair of muntac deer grazing to the left. Spring has most definitely sprung!

There was also plenty of insect action with both small tortoiseshell and peacock butterflies seen flying around and also red-tailed and buff-tailed bumblebee queens foraging for suitable nesting sites.

I went and had a look at the long-tailed tit nest that I found on my last visit and found it fully finished and fully lined. It was too difficult to see if anything was inside and I saw no sign of the pair that built it. But as I was looking, I heard a commotion behind me and turned around to see two kingfishers fighting. I don't know if you have ever seen this, but they fight the same way they fly - very, very fast!

There was wildlife everywhere I looked, with birds, insects, mammals, flowers and trees all showing signs that spring has finally sprung in West Norfolk. In my last blog I said that spring should try harder. Well it has done just that and surpassed my expectations with flying colours. I had intended to spend a couple of hours down the valley, but ended up spending a wholly enjoyable 4 and a half hours instead!

Spring: Must try harder

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.