Spring has Sprung! I Think?

Ahhhhh spring. Probably my favourite time of the year, but boy have we had to wait this year. 

I live in Kent currently, so you'd think that Spring for us would have been and gone by now, but we've still got Bluebells out in the local woods and I haven't seen any fledglings yet. We do however have some bluetits nesting in the nestbox outside our house, and as I was sitting watching the birds on the feeder the other day, I could hear them cheeping as Mum and Dad flew in with tasty snacks for them. It's the very cutesy part of nature...

Basically, It's that Springwatch time of the year, and the bug has really bitten me and I'm out and about more. Thanks to the upcoming surgery, my summer will be spent recovering so I'm hoping that I will be able to get out and about with the camera a lot over the next few months.

The other day, after watching Springwatch, I decided to go out for an evening walk. I'm not usually one who goes exploring in the evening but I've decided it's something I should do more often. I wandered around the gardens and out to the back of the property, where there is a gap in the hedge that goes onto neighbouring farmland. It was getting on for sunset and I stood in the gap in the hedge and was rewarded for my evening wander by seeing a hare! It was the first time I'd ever seen one, and something I've wanted to see for a long time. I was so impressed! In fact, as I scanned the field, I found 3 of them, one of which was approached by a fox. The behaviour between them was stunning. The fox had obviously realised the hare was nearly as big as itself and although it did approach, it seemed wary and not sure what was going to happen. The hare stood on it's hind legs, did a small amount of 'boxing' with it's front legs and the fox slumped off. Unfortunately I didn't have my camera with me, and there wouldn't have been enough light anyway. 

The next morning I was up bright and early, to try and go and see more hares, but unfortunately the weather was against me, and in the drizzle I found the farmland empty. Well of hares in any case, there were plenty of birds out there, especially members of the Thrush family digging up all the worms that had been bought to the surface. After a while I decided to head over to one of the two ponds that we have here, but instead of going to the viewing platform which is really exposed, I went upto the fence where there was a slight gap in the shrubbery around it. On the opposite side, sitting on the fence was a Kingfisher! I was so lucky, two first sightings in less than 24 hours. 

Again, no camera, but I have treated myself to a new tripod (and very nice it is to!) So hope to do a stakeout at the pond, camera at the ready, sometime soon.

I'm really hoping that the weather holds now, at least more than it has done so far this year, so that we can really enjoy spring and nature has a fighting chance of having a good year this year. For anyone who's read the recently published State of Nature report, you'll know that by god do we need it to have a good year.