January was rather quiet on the wildlife front, largely due to the rather gloomy weather. February got things moving with the first butterfly, a red admiral, on 5th, followed by brimstone and peacock on 24th. Also on this date, that coincided with a warm, sunny day, the first adder was out basking followed by a slow worm on 26th.

The first frogspawn had appeared by the 24^th quickly followed by the massed arrival of toads at the spawning pond. Toad spawn then started to appear by 1^st March.

A goshawk was seen flying over on the 8^th March, continuing the rather more frequent sightings of this species.

A static sound recorder was used for the first time mid-month to try to locate lesser spotted woodpeckers. This proved successful, with drumming heard frequently over a five day period, good news for this rare and declining species.

Grass snake sightings started on 4^th March and on the 21^st I saw three, a female and two males entwined in a mating mass. The first time I have seen this and more confirmation that grass snakes are doing well here.

On the 26^th March I came across otter spraints (poo that is left in a prominent position to mark their presence) on the southern stream. 

Mid-month there was a splendid display of wild daffodils capping off a really exciting and productive March.

The volunteer group beavered away with the coppicing until the cut off point at the end of February after which their focus switched to checking and repairing the deer fences around the coppice. A total of 110 work days were put in by the group.