March tends to be the beginning of the “firsts” of the year, the first primrose, the first bumble bee, the first catkin, the first glossy yellow lesser celandines appearing on the road verges. It is also the true beginning of the nesting season for birds with nests being built or repaired in earnest throughout the trees, hedgerows and nest boxes.
The first of our feathered summer visitors such as the Chiffchaff will be reaching the shores and pushing further inland. It’s a small green warbler often overlooked but always given away by its metallic “chiff-chaff” call as it perches on top of the now green tinged thickets and scrub.
Coots will begin to build their tower like nests from reeds and frogs will start to spawn in the pools and ponds where the rushes and irises start to wake up from their winter slumber.
Wild forget-me-not is coming into flower and on sunny days the first ladybirds sit there warming themselves as they come out of hibernation. Cow parsley will be ready to burst into flower after throwing out a profusion of fresh green growth complimenting the delicate white blooms of the blackthorn which sits on the bare stems like a reminder of the snow falls of winter.
March, the end of the winter, the dawn of a new season
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