In the pinewoods, the colours are slowly shifting, the birches to their spring green and the larch roses blossoming pink. The pair of pied wagtails have returned to our neighbour’s shed and the peewits are back on the marshes, though fewer in number (and there are two pairs of crows that maraud their territory).
The siskins have returned in numbers, huge skeins of geese have been flying north, and the swallows and housemartins are back earlier than usual, though they are still just passing through – “ours” are not yet here.