The first days of March have been glorious, clear and cold with frosts at night but increasingly warm sunshine by day. St Davids day was fantastic and we all took some time out to enjoy it, humans and cattle alike!
We have our first daffodil in flower and this morning our first seal pup of 2010, just a couple of hours old, with its mother in attendance on Porth Lleuog beach. These out of season pups are fairly common around our coastline, with the odd pup likely in almost any month outside the main season between late August and November.
If this pup was expecting a quiet windswept beach to spend its first weeks, forget it! Porth Lleuog is one of two beaches used by moulting adults at this time of the year. In the last week we have had anything up to 130 animals hauled out on the pebbles, keeping dry whilst they moult their old coat. It is mainly the big males that are moulting as we come into March and April, so our lone pup is surrounded by massive bull seals, although mum is on guard to stop them getting too close.
Of course the arrival of spring is never official until wheatears return to the island. We had our first early male on 7 March followed by another yesterday. Smart male birds usually return first, having spent our winter in western Africa. They can be back for over a week before the females start to arrive. This allows them to set up territories in advance of their potential partners making it home.
Skylarks were up and singing this morning, five lapwings were tumbling over the arable plot in the centre of the island and stonechats seem to have returned after an absence during the cold spell in January and February. Choughs are calling and bounding around their cave nest sites. We expect to catch our first nest building pairs in the next few days if the weather holds.