Rather than a post about specific places I've been to over the last couple of weeks (which have been scant and relatively unremarkable!), this is more about the feeling in the air at the moment - spring is on the way!
I've noticed the birds getting more feisty - male blackbirds chasing rivals away, robins making themselves more visible perching in the garden where they've been absent for ages, male sparrows flitting about. And of course the birdsong is just getting going - when I got back from skiing a couple of weeks ago, I noticed that the mornings and evenings were no longer almost silent. The weak but pretty song of the dunnock singing from the undergrowth, song thrushes piping up with their repetitive notes. Even a crow was getting very agitated the other day!
Coupled with lesser celandines and snowdrops, and the early blooms of blackthorn, buds on the trees, my first sighting of a brimstone butterfly (as they overwinter among ivy on the woodland floor), early bumblebees sipping from early-flowering plants, spring is definitely on its way. It's an exciting time of year - things are waking up. What wildlife encounters will I have over the coming months?!
