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

[pressld2]

I agree with Dan. Here in Kent we seem to have gone from Autumn into Spring and skipped Winter completely.

Originally Posted by Dan Salter

daffs have been out for absolutely weeks...even months.

This photo was taken on 17 February in Lessness Abbey Woods...



And it wasn't an isolated clump - they were everywhere! I may call into Northward Hill this weekend and see if there are any bluebells out - wouldn't surprise me in the least!

Dan also mentioned lesser celandine and this one was taken on the River Cray near Hall Place, Bexley on 9 March (not 9 May, which is what I entered in the photo details when uploading )...



Dave P.

P.s. the leaves in the second lesser celandine picture are stinging nettles that the flowers are growing through.

[Wild-Woman]

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.

True. It's all happening but about a fortnight behind the same events as last year- which were about a month early! So we're about a fortnight fast...if you see what I mean! Confused?

[Poirot]

Originally Posted by 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

Wow bluebells out already, in Staffordshire the leaves/shoots are coming up but there is no sign at all of the main flower shoot. Our daffodills only startedfully flowing about a fortnight ago and are now reaching their full bloom.

I never would have imagined that spring could be so different across such a small distance.

[agrumpycow]

Originally Posted by 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

It's funny, despite being just a few miles from you, Jenny, it's a bit different around here. In my garden and local park snowdrops are still in flower. Some primroses and daffs are going over but there are plenty of buds still to come out.
And there are a handful of bluebell bids but non in flower yet! Must be down to micro-climates in the gardens and parks

[Cheryl]

I've seen Blackthorn in flower and today when walking along the canal saw ground ivy, wood anemone, celendines, dog violets and loads of primroses - the bluebells are coming through but no flowers yet.

[pressld2]

This was at Stodmarsh National Nature Reserve, near Canterbury, today...



Dave P.

[JonSadler]

I think early: Bluebells, Anemones, Blackthorn are blooming in Birmingham. The Celandine have been flowering for weeks.

See this site for more info on phenology:

nature's calendar > record

Spring appears to be getting progressively earlier.

Regards

Jon

A Wildlife Diary from my Local Patch

[Cheryl]

Not sure whether it's early or not or if I've just not been very observant but I saw my first Brimstone Butterfly of the season this morning.

[Poirot]

Today was the first day i have noticed the birdsong it seems to be becoming more exsessive.

Poirot

[Cheryl]

Poirot - you are obviously a heavy sleeper - lucky you!! I noticed an increase in the dawn chorus a good few weeks ago. I love it really Just not EVERY morning "LOL"

[Poirot]

Yeah your right iam a very heavy sleeper i just sleep through those earth tremors. As i am typing now i can hear the birds in the bush outside, springs finally arrived in Staffordshire. This year looks excellent for Bluebells, the woods are capeted with their shoots. Won't be long before the flower stems start to appear.

[badgerwatcher]

What has struck me this year is the profusion of blooms everywhere. Everything seems to be really healthy!
I've had blackthorn in flower and bluebells for a week or so, and banks of primroses and violets, drifts of lesser celandine, white heather and pulmonaria, where I didn't know I had so many!
Butterflies, including a peacock the other day, green woodpeckers shreaking with laughter, all the other birds flying by with huge mossy moustaches, toads singing love songs, jays flashing by like flying rainbows, rooks holding conferences on the lawns. It's all a bit like a Disney cartoon here.
Plus amazing sunsets, and dawn choruses to stop you in your tracks.
Wonderful. Spring in technicolour.
And today misting fine rain covering it all with diamonds.

[Poirot]

Originally Posted by badgerwatcher

What has struck me this year is the profusion of blooms everywhere. Everything seems to be really healthy!
I've had blackthorn in flower and bluebells for a week or so, and banks of primroses and violets, drifts of lesser celandine, white heather and pulmonaria, where I didn't know I had so many!
Butterflies, including a peacock the other day, green woodpeckers shreaking with laughter, all the other birds flying by with huge mossy moustaches, toads singing love songs, jays flashing by like flying rainbows, rooks holding conferences on the lawns. It's all a bit like a Disney cartoon here.
Plus amazing sunsets, and dawn choruses to stop you in your tracks.
Wonderful. Spring in technicolour.
And today misting fine rain covering it all with diamonds.

Wow you could make a great poem out of that description

[badgerwatcher]

I'll get back to you on that one, Poirot.

[Dan Salter]

I hear chiffchaff almost daily but had a good visual yesterday....and the first 2 birds i saw when i looked out my bedroom window today was a beautiful pair of Blackcaps!...lovely birds!