Nature watch: March

Spot the signs of a 'blackthorn winter' and gaze upon brimstone butterflies

Hard frosts underfoot and hedgerows buried in drifts of white blossom provide the setting for a ‘blackthorn winter’. But the signs of spring are everywhere. The woods echo to the rat-tat-tat drumming of great spotted woodpeckers, and a million celandines can’t be wrong. Now is the time to listen for the first chiffchaffs in the hazel spinneys. These leaf-thin warblers are among the first migrating birds to fetch up hungry and exhausted after their journey from beyond the Sahara. In Dorset they find primroses and brimstone butterflies feeding on nectar. Having over-wintered in a shelter of ivy, the brimstone lays single eggs on buckthorn leaves. When they hatch, its year is done; but a fresh generation will brighten the months to come.

Leaping and lolloping over the fields go the mad March hares. It's a sign of spring, when love is in the air and the jacks (males) are feeling amorous. But when you see two brown hares standing on their two hind legs and cuffing each other like boxers, one of them could well be a reticent jill (female) rebuffing her suitor. Hares are bigger than rabbits and distinguished by their long, black-tipped ears. When resting, though, the ears are laid flat and the hare keeps a low profile, hugging the ground in long grass or ploughed furrows.

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