Here we are again, March 2023, nearly a year on – my intention of keeping posts going through the year gone yet again!

March has come ‘in like a lamb’, as the saying goes, but with the vagaries of the weather due to global warming we wait to see if it goes ‘out like a lion’. Today is a cool, dull, day, nothing happening in the garden or the copse – unless you look and listen.

On the bird front, the feeders are quiet but a couple of Siskins are hanging around, perhaps making sure the Sparrowhawk is out of the way, and the band of Goldfinches has already breakfasted, leaving plenty on the ground for the Chaffinches and Dunnocks to clear up.

After the sad loss of our resident Crows, the void is at last being filled by a new and highly territorial pair which will hopefully take over the duties of patrolling the copse and alerting its occupants to danger. At this moment they are hassling Ezzy, the female Buzzard, who may have been hoping to sit quietly until Bosco joins her. These two have been much in evidence over the past weeks, especially on lovely sunny days when they have mated, as usual, in the master Italian Poplar. They have shown interest in the nearby willow tree they used in 2021 so we watch and wait!

The winter tolerance shown by Blackbirds and Robins which has meant happily sharing food on cold mornings is gone, with aggressive posturing and pursuit taking its place, and the Dunnocks flicking their tails to entice females into the bushes!

Our wintering Blackcaps have left for their breeding areas in Scandinavia, now we wait for the return of our sun loving Blackcaps from their wintering grounds in South Africa, together with the first Chiff Chaffs and summer migrants.

On the garden front, we have plenty of primroses, crocuses and the first daffodils showing. The Spring is getting earlier each year, with winters being milder, although we had a few days of -10c which has taken several plants sadly.