Spring??

Today the sun shone, the wind dropped and it felt almost warm in sheltered spots. Chris, Pete and I went up to Castor Hanglands, but there were very few terrestrial insects about: the most interesting was a brimstone butterfly which briefly flitted by. Pete and Chris did a bit of water-beetling and found several species, suggesting that spring is progressing slowly.

The image shows one of the ponds we visited. This was completely dry last March, but is now overflowing, making it quite difficult to follow the usual path. The absence of any green is very unusual - I estimate that we are currently about four to six weeks behind the springs of recent years. However, the toads seem to be sticking to their timetable, their gentle chirping chorus the only evidence that they had returned to the ponds.