Spring Has Sprung ....

.... How do I know this?

Yesterday I heard swallows twittering at Amwell Nature Reserve.
On my walk this morning I heard a chiffchaff singing its name and a blackcap impersonating a nightingale.
A male hairy-footed flower bee was supping at the wild primrose clump.
A male brimstone butterfly was patrolling without stopping, searching for females. 
The sky was blue, the sun was shining, the air was so clean and fresh I kept inhaling deeply.

MrQ had an appointment at the optician and needed a haircut so I deposited him in Epping and headed for the forest. It was glorious. I came across a small herd of young fallow deer and stopped to capture them. I met a few happy dog walkers and women riders. Their horses seemed to be loving the weather. 

I'd just spotted the nuthatch above near the top of a silver birch when a peloton of mamils arrived. "What are you looking at?" said one. I told him it was a nuthatch. "Oh, I can see it, that's a woodpecker." I told him that I didn't think so. Mansplaining mamil said, "Haven't seen nuthatches around here for ages, it's too big for a nuthatch." I told him that I know my nuthatches from my woodpeckers and off the peloton went. :)