This morning Tony Rayner stepped outside his house in Cholsey and caught a glimpse of something that looked familiar. Then from around a roof top a Swallow shot over his head, moving north! He phoned Brian Shaw at Withymead and apparently he had seen 3 Swallows yesteday, so it isn’t a one-off … they really are starting to arrive! This is much earlier than in previous years.
Other than that, signs of Spring seem to be few and far between around my area of Tilehurst. The Snowdrops are still in flower in some places (quite late), male Brimstones have been cropping up and last week on a sunny walk along the river near the Madjeski statium I saw a rather cold looking Small Tortoishell. Queen bumblebees are relatively frequent on sunny days in my garden but the big question is – what are they finding to eat? Because there are very few flowers out at the moment and, for the birds, there are even fewer insects.