Signs of spring that won't run away!

You get a call from the window, 'come quick, we've got long-tailed tits on the feeder again'. You rush over as fast as you can, but it always seems too late - they've flown off without giving you as much as a glimpse of their tails!

If this sounds like your experience of 'watching' wildlife, then you'll like our signs of spring that definitely won't run, hop or fly away!

Flower power

Bees, lizards and monkeys sound like the last things I should be telling you to look out for. But these 'animals' are actually plants. Or, more specifically, orchids.

For a plant so colourful and exotic, orchids are surprisingly easy to see and many of the common ones live on our reserves.

Honeysuckle is a common hedgerow plant and is also often planted in gardens. You'll probaly smell it before seeing it, and while you're admiring its gorgeous pink and cream tubular flowers, you might even get lucky and see a hummingbird hawk moth pop by for a refreshing drink of nectar.

For more flowers, check out these reserves.

In full bloom

Blossom isn't just wonderful for insects (and the birds that feed on insects), but coming in shades of white, pink, yellow and green, it's also great to look at.

And what's even better about it, you don't need to go anywhere special to see it. Hawthorn has a lovely white bloom that lights up many hedgerows around the country. Crab apples have a lovely pink or white blossom and make good plants to grow in gardens, while horse chestnuts turn out to be a tree for all seasons - producing conkers in winter and beautiful white flower spikes in spring.

Not for the faint-hearted!

Beware - the following signs are for the less squeamish amongst you! 

As a bird that spends quite a lot of time 'yaffling' away in treetops, you'd think green woodpeckers would be easy to spot. But don't look up - look down as you're much more likely to spot their cigarette butt-like droppings than the actual bird!

Owls tend to eat their food whole, and produce pellets, which are the indigestible parts of their prey. Pellets are easy to find beneath favoured feeding and roosting sites, and can be found on many of our reserves. You can even have a go at dissecting them to see what's been on the menu.

Spotted small piles of black tarry poo with a strong smell and lots of fish bones and scales in it? You're very lucky if you have as this is an otter spraint. Usually found on boulders and around the bottom of trees, as well as places that mark territory boundaries, you can have a go spotting otter poo with us.

Pond life

Ok, so this is a little bit of a cheat as hopefully the things in the pond are moving! However, as ponds don't in themselves move, you're pretty much guaranteed to see something without it running away from you.

Watch out for dragonflies emerging, tadpoles swimming and marsh marigolds sitting pretty and yellow at the ponds' edge.

Leave a comment below to let us know your favourite signs of spring that don't run away!