Spring is here! Top ten signs of it in your garden

• Spring has sprung, and the RSPB has created a list of ‘top ten signs of spring’ that you can see from your home!
• Join in the conversation #NatureIsOpen
• Connection to nature has a positive impact on both physical health and emotional well being. 

The RSPB has collected top ten signs of spring that you may see from your garden:  

1. Birds building nests – birds only spend a small part of the year making nests, so now is the time to be on the look-out. They use a huge range of materials!  Chaffinches use sticky cobwebs to make pads on the branches, forming ‘anchors’ for their nest.   Long-tailed tits create a pouch-shaped home with as many as 2,000 feathers inside as padding.   Blackbirds and house martins use mud to make their nests.   Starlings love fresh cut green leaves – nothing goes to waste.
2. ​Hedgehogs waking up – while birds are making their beds, hedgehogs are just getting out of theirs. They come out of hibernation around March/April and are on the hunt for food and water. They’ll have lost around a third of their weight during hibernation. You can help them by putting out a clean bowl of water or a meat-based cat or dog food.

3  Migrants returning – spring sees the return of migrant birds to the UK. In your garden you may be able to admire swooping swifts, marvel at sand martins balancing on telephone wires or hear the nightingales chirping call.

4  Bats waking up – you may start to see bats coming out to feast on insects in your garden – a single pipistrelle bat can eat 3,000 gnats in one night!

5  Bluebells – if you have any bluebells, now is the best time of year to see them burst into bloom, transforming the ground into a sea of blue.

6  Dragonflies return - the common darter dragonfly will start to come out. These regular visitors to gardens perch on vegetation, walls, fences, garden canes and washing lines as they wait to catch their prey,  which, for a common darter dragonfly, is pretty much anything they can catch.

​7  Frogspawn in ponds/toadlets emerging - If you have a pond in your garden, you may start to see tiny toadlets emerging. They love  juicy insect larvae, spiders, slugs and worms, so you can create a toad haven by making your garden as insect-friendly as possible. Leave your leaves to dissolve in the ground rather than raking them up, planting wildflowers, or building a bug hotel!

8 Blossoms – if you’ve got crab apple or cherry trees in your garden they’ll be starting to burst into bloom. Bees love crab apple’s pink blossoms, while the cherry tree blossom holds both the male and reproductive parts in the same flower.

9 Grass snakes waking up - Grass snakes start to wake up from hibernation around now to look for a mate, so you might see one in your garden or  park. The females lay eggs in places such as compost heaps where the rotting vegetation can keep the eggs nice and warm, so be sure to check any piles in your garden before moving them.

10 Dawn chorus for early risers on light mornings – from around March to July birds are looking to defend their territories and attract a mate, which means an early start! The first birds start singing about an hour before sunrise, with skylarks, song thrushes, robins and blackbirds starting off the choir. The early part of the day is perfect for birds, dark enough that predators can’t see them and the still air can carry song about 20 times as far. There’s always the RSPB bird radio if you can’t get enough and want to listen to birdsong throughout the day.    
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​All images (c) RSPB - click on individual images for photographer's details
​RSPB website