One of many...

It seems to have been a very successful year for blue tits, and this morning Thorpe Wood was echoing with their territorial calls, while flurries of excitable birds flitted among the hazel catkins. Four stock doves were sitting in one of the old oaks, and I watched a tree-creeper foraging for insects in the grooved bark. The drumming of the great spotted-woodpecker is a sure sign that spring's on its way.