A cool, grey morning, but with plenty of signs of the approaching spring. In the hedgerows, the bare, dark branches of Blackthorn are covered with constellations of tiny white buds, while Elder is covered with fresh green leaves and Sycamore buds are starting to unfurl.
Fresh green Cleavers tangle around the base of the hedgerows, while the green leaves of Bluebells are covered in flower-bids just about to burst.
A Wayfaring Tree in the Gully is covered in pale green florettes, with a tangle of silvery Old Man’s Beard around it
As we step into the Large Copse, the piercing high-pitched calls of a Goldcrest ring out from the canopy, along with the wheezing of Great Tits, chatter of Chaffinches and syncopated song of Dunnocks from the undergrowth.
A flash of movement on a Sycamore reveals the presence of a Treecreeper, shuffling mouse-like up the trunk, with lovely views of it’s intricately patterned black and white plumage.
Out in the back meadows, a Skylark pours his ‘careless rapture’ into the sky, although he is invisible to the eye.
Here and there in the short turf, the curly, dark green leaves of Crow Garlic poke up, with the leaves of Cowslips carpeting some of the meadows.
Jackdaws circle and chatter above the fields, with the hearty ‘chuckle’ of a Pheasant echoing across the valley, with Goldfinch, Blackcap, Song Thrush, Robin and Blue Tit also seen or heard.