Early Spring (or not)

[Poirot]

I keep hearing in the newspapers that spring has started really early with reports talking about flowers, and wildlife coming really early all over the country. Where I live in staffordshire (which is around the middle of the country) our flowers and wildlife seems to be on track as normal as far as i can tell. Daffodills are only just about flowering (late march) and songbirds havn't been exesivly singing. I have only in the past week heared a woodpecker and definatly no migratory birds are around. We certainly have had plenty of rain and the temperature has definatly not gone anywhere greatly passed 10c

Is this the same all over the country and have other people noticed this? Or am I looking in the wrong places for signs of early spring?

Poirot

[Kayleigh]

Hi Poirot and welcome to the site..I'm with you on this everything in Northants seems to be on track. Someone did hear a cuckoo recently

[Dan Salter]

That was me !

Everything down here in the hot sunny south seesm to be earlier...( as it does every year).

Snowdrops are nearly over....daffs have been out for absolutely weeks...even months.

have chiff chaff daily, woodpeckers been drumming for weeks and using my feeders...cuckoo im 98% sure i heard...a week or two back. Comfrey is everywhere and in flower as is:

Lesser celendine
Dog violets
White dead nettle
primroses (which never really stopped flowering all year)
cuckoo flower

garden wallflowers and grape hyacinths

lords and ladies ( cuckoo pint) in full leaf

so looking from my window...spring is definately here.

[willing to learn]

I think we are a little behind last year here, going on the way the breeding falcons are behaving. The weather pattern as been all over the place
Regards
Colin

[Kayleigh]

Originally Posted by Dan Salter

That was me !

Everything down here in the hot sunny south seesm to be earlier...( as it does every year).

Snowdrops are nearly over....daffs have been out for absolutely weeks...even months.

have chiff chaff daily, woodpeckers been drumming for weeks and using my feeders...cuckoo im 98% sure i heard...a week or two back. Comfrey is everywhere and in flower as is:

Lesser celendine
Dog violets
White dead nettle
primroses (which never really stopped flowering all year)
cuckoo flower

garden wallflowers and grape hyacinths

lords and ladies ( cuckoo pint) in full leaf

so looking from my window...spring is definately here.

I thought it was you Dan but wasn't sure.

[Jez]

Spring early for sure, we had the first of the local asparagus arrive today 3 weeks earlier than the previous years. This was also reported yesterday on tv!

[Poirot]

It seems that the south have an earlier spring than north of the country. I wonder whether it has always been like that or only recently

Thanks Kayleigh i am enjoying the site alot

[tufftie]

Well A few years back i had friends in Orkney and their spring was always a few weeks later than mine - and, apart from when I was living in Orkney, I've always lived in the SE / SW..so..?!. Certainly Spring here does seem to have arrived earlier down here over the last few years.

[Wightman]

I've seen no evidence here that spring is any earlier than the past 5 years. The weather has been similar - mild, wet with the odd cold snaps.

Gary

[jennyb]

Spring is definitely earlier here this year. I had daffodils out in December. The snowdrops are long gone, the primroses are almost finished and the rest of the daffodils are past their best. I even have bluebells out in the woods.

The problem is that the plants think it is spring but the weather doesn't yet realise that it is supposed to be springlike!

Jenny