The Nature Table: March

It’s the birds I’m noticing most now that spring is here.

This morning I peeped over a dry stone wall and two startled herons rose up from the pond in front of me and, silhouetted by the sun, headed for the horizon.

A couple of days ago, driving along our lane, a peacock flew across my path - just inches from the car’s windscreen.

Pairs of birds of various kinds are thronging about the sunflower seeds I pile on the wall behind the house each morning.  And the curlews are back on the moors with their distinctive and joyful cry.

Unfortunately, I don’t have the kind of long lens that is going to get me decent photos of any of these winged creatures.  And even my favourite tame robin is determinedly camera shy.  Then again, I could hardly go kidnapping a bird to put on my nature table, now could I?  So it really doesn’t matter.

Lambs, on the other hand, are entitled to be here.  I could certainly borrow one of those for an hour or two.  Which means I get to include them!

Here then are the spoils of March.

1.  Newly grown pond weed.
2.  Catkins.
3.  The mock orange bursting forth.
4.  Garden primulas.
5.  Coltsfoots (coltsfeet?) on the moor edge.
6.  The first wobbly-legged lambs are appearing in the fields.
7.  Fresh eggs from the new Dixon Hill hens.
8.  Bright orange moss growing on the wall tops.
9.  The small pond is filling with frog spawn.
10. The ducks are back on the big pond.
11. Miniature daffodils.
12. Crocuses.
13. The Lenten rose is out in the garden.
14. Tiny buds on the heather.
15. Hawthorn leaves unfurling.
16. The long stems of forsythia.