Catkins tell us Spring is on its way

Birds

Spring appeared to arrive in a rush after the 17th, when the temperature in Cambridgeshire rapidly increased, with a warm SW weather pattern after a prolonged blocking cold front from the east.

Bird song increased from the occasional song thrush, robin and tawny owl to numerous song thrushes, blackbirds, dunnocks, robins, collared doves and skylarks to mention a few. As well as bird song some birds display in spring to attract females and defend territories.

There was little bird movement with the exception of small flocks of lapwing on the 5th and 6th going south and on the 15th going NE and flock of 40 golden plover on the 27th flying SW. Several large flocks of fieldfare, mixed with starlings were seen feeding in fields towards the end of the month.

New bird sightings for the month included woodcock, cormorant and greylag goose. The very cold weather earlier in the month was still bringing large numbers of birds into gardens to feed.

Sparrowhawks are a regular predator in gardens but more unusually kestrels occasionally take birds when they cannot find small mammals which are their normal prey. The kestrel, below, took a fieldfare, presumably in desperation, after several days of snow cover hiding its regular food supply. I have only once before seen a kestrel take a bird and that was a blue tit again during snow conditions about 20 years ago.

Kestrel with fieldfare

The kestrel fed for about 40 minutes before placing the remains at the bottom of a bush, to which it returned about four hours later, to finish it off.

Mammals

Several species of mammal were seen. One was unfortunately a dead badger on the road on the 17th. A fox was sighted on the 24th, a stoat on the 20th and six hares on the 10th.

Insects

With the warmer weather came an increase in insect activity.

Bumble bees and honey bees were frequently seen on snowdrops. Two species of ladybird were seen, a harlequin on the 23rd and two 7-spots on the 27th. The first butterfly record, also on the 27th sitting next to the ladybirds, was a small tortoiseshell.

Small Tortoiseshell Butterfly sitting in the sun

Moth numbers also increased along with the improving weather. Several winter flying species were recorded. This included the Spring Usher a common species which I had not seen before.

Spring Usher

Satellite

Dotted Border Moth

Plants

Hazel and Alder trees have been releasing clouds of pollen from their long dangling catkins. The female flowers of both species are very small and inconspicuous being basically naked anthers.