A lot of us still see February as the end of Winter, but not me, I like to be an optimist., and it's literally a matter of days before the the earliest Summer migrants start to arrive back. If you look over past records, early summer migrants are quite common. Take for example 2009 when Dorset's first Sand Martin of the summer arrived on the 19th of February, and in the same year Portland's first Wheatear of the spring popped up on March 1st. Dorset even has records of Redstart appearing as early as 23rd of Feb!!!
Lets get a bit of interaction on here and have a bit of a sweepstake as to when the iconic signs of Spring arrive......
For example......
First Chiffchaff singing
First Blackcap singing
First Osprey sighting
First Woodlark calling
First Sand Martin/Wheatear etc....
ROLL ON THE SPRING !!!
ChiffCaff 20th March
Blackcap 19th March
Osprey 4th April
Woodlark..25th Feb..look at photos..:-)
Sand Martin 29th March
Wheatear 27th March..
Hiya Paul..see your photograph on Dorset Birds..
Capturing the Light with an original perspective displayed in every Photograph..perhaps
Too late to start thinking!
Cheers Pete. All good guesses. Loved your Woodlark picture. You can clearly see the white and black wing spot.
Cheers Paul...crawled 75 Metres to get it on my hands and knees..:-)
How about throwing in the first cuckoo as well and for a bit latter on the first nightjar chirring!
Most definitely. First Cuckoo and first Nightjar churring is a must. First Sand/Common Lizard sightings as well. Red Admiral, Small Tortoiseshell etc.......
Red Admiral today at Blashford Lakes car park..flew over my head as I was eating a sandwich+coffee the camera was in the car..:-)
We had 5 raft spiders spotted today all at the same time. There were buff and red tailed bumble bees about yesterday and a brimstone butterfly seen earlier in the week!
Luke saw a woodlark displaying this afternoon.
Lets see whats Paul has started and try and get a spring sighting forum going, could be fun and everyone can join in!
I would put some dates down but perhaps I have got a bit of an unfair advantage working on the reserve and I don't want to be accused of cheating!
We saw a Red Admiral at Arne today. North-west end of the reserve.
Arne all afternoon, out all evening, now have homework! No time to swot so completely wild guesses out of the blue:
Woodlark calling - 20 March
Chiff Chaff singing - 15 March
Blackcap singing - 1 April
Osprey sighting - 20 March
Wheatear - 5 March
First sighting of Common Lizard - this afternoon at Arne, came out of hibernation far too early, Luke showed us, was looking after her - must count surely?! She was gorgeous.
PS.Saw Red Admiral Coombe Heath 7 January, will post hub's photo.