Warmer Days - For the Moment…

If you ignore the weather forecast for the next few days you really can start to convince yourself that Spring has arrived.  Both Lark and Taurus have started to shed the longer hair of their winter coats as they start to prepare for the warmer weather.  Any early frost was quickly melted by the sun and, even early on in the morning, it was warm and sunny along Risedale Beck.  

The change in the number of plant species in areas that are touched by the sun has been quite dramatic over the past few days.  The south-facing banks above the beck were barely showing the leaves of Primroses last week but are now showing growing numbers of flowers.

On the Wetland, bird activity is increasing including one Mallard drake driving off another pair who had settled on his patch to see if it had potential as a nesting site.  He was none too subtle in letting them know the site was already taken.  Meanwhile a Greylag Goose spent a long time with his head just above or occasionally below the water line, although it wasn't immediately obvious what had got his attention.

Elsewhere a female was busy very carefully arranging leaves among a patch of reeds and settled down on to these.  Despite the pleasant south-facing aspect as she sat with her head into the sun, this clearly didn't live up to expectations as later the pair had moved on to look at other options further into the Wetland.  They may have time to be choosy now but competition for nest sites is likely to increase in the near future.