What Springlike Signs Have You Seen?

[4wd]

BBC news covering this today with obligatory unfounded claim that Climate change is 'causing' more extremes.

There are many historical references to periods of unusual mild temperatures in winter in this country

Edited January 11, 2012 by 4wd

[MP-R]

Very springlike in the southeast this morning. Quite happily went to uni campus in just a shirt with a light jacket over the top (which is light clothing for me) as opposed to the normal shirt, jumper and overcoat which I normally wear when it's 6Cish or below.

[Andy Bown]

Many crocusses now flowering in the garden, they're in total shade too!

[Beverley Lass]

It's dusk here, but someone nearby is mowing their lawn !

Goodness.

B.

[stewfox]

BBC 'person' at lunch time put all these early showing plants (double the usual amount) down to global warming wonder when that would come up. He had a standard grey beard of course.

BBC news covering this today with obligatory unfounded claim that Climate change is 'causing' more extremes.

There are many historical references to periods of unusual mild temperatures in winter in this country

was it you he had a grey beard ??

ps anyone get sunburned today ??

Edited January 11, 2012 by stewfox

[Drew]

Next door has a rose bush, with not miuch in the way of leaves but one stonking great big yellow flower.

[Snowangel-MK]

Help us map your 'weird nature' observations

You've been telling us about the weird occurrences happening in the natural world due to the unusually warm autumn and winter weather - now you can help us document some of these changes by plotting your observations on this collaborative Google map.

http://www.guardian....ture?CMP=twt_gu

[Coast]

A farmer in Leicestershire has said the mild winter is having a negative effect on his crops. Andrew Rees, who runs a farm in Kings Norton, said his wheat crop has carried on growing because of the unusually warm weather. Mr Rees said some leaves had succumbed to disease which the winter normally killed off.

He added: "We haven't had the cold spell which puts the crop into its dormant winter stage."

Video here: http://www.bbc.co.uk...rshire-16527855

Spring flowers are blooming, hayfever sufferers are cursing catkin pollen, bats, frogs and hedgehogs have not yet gone into hibernation, and around the country people are reporting the strange sound of the dawn chorus in the normally bleak January mornings. Once again the natural world has been turned on its head by an unusually mild winter, perhaps accentuated by a previous mild autumn which seemed to prolong spring for most of 2011.

That things are not as they traditionally should be is unquestioned. Ecologists, conservation charities and nature lovers responding to the Guardian's Twitter appeal for #earlyspring sightings report an incredible range of flowers, insects, birds and animals blooming, singing, nesting, mating, or simply being awake when they shouldn't be.

The National Trust, one of the UK's biggest landowners, sent news of frogspawn, wild garlic, snowdrops and daffodils that have passed their prime on the Gower peninsula in south Wales, wood pigeons mating and fledging their young near the charity's headquarters in Swindon, camellias and magnolias in south-west England, hawthorn flowering high in the Yorkshire Dales, and a blackbird singing over the Tower of London just before Christmas.

Readers sent in reports of hedgehogs active in Cumbria, bees remaining busy throughout the mild winter, a small tortoiseshell butterfly on Ambleside in Cumbria, ladybirds in Derbyshire, narcissi in Dorset, primroses in flower since before Christmas in south Gloucestershire, more daffodils and snowdrops, and a fig tree already in leaf. Perhaps the most incredible sighting was of a juvenile slowworm at the London Wetlands centre in Barnes, a species usually expected in March at the earliest, and thought to be a record early sighting of the reptile in the region.

Unseasonal sightings are not unusual, but the scale and range of oddities this year appear to mark it out as unique. According to Barnes wetlands ecologist Richard Bullock, as well as catkins and blackthorn flowering, garden birds such as robins, wrens, blackbirds, song thrush, blue tits and great tits have been noisier than usual and many are marking out territories, both signs of planning to breed, while starlings have been seen building new nests already, and may be even thinking about laying.

The RSPB said it had had many calls from people wondering where their garden birds were. The charity believes that because there are still plenty of insects in the wild, the birds have no need to seek out food from kindly home owners. "We have been getting this spring-like activity or behaviour since up to and after Christmas," said Bullock, whose colleagues have also seen soprano pipistrelle and Leisler's bats active in their usual hibernation period.

Not everybody agrees this is an early spring, though. David Paynter, reserve manager at the Wildfowl & Wetlands Trust reserve at Slimbridge in Gloucestershire, says observers could also be seeing signs of a very late winter. As well as animals that have not yet hibernated, WWT reserves are also reporting low numbers of migrating birds such as white-footed geese, pochard and Bewick's swans, suggesting they have been happy to stay in the milder temperatures in northern and eastern Europe. However, a cold snap – such as the one that is forecast to reach the UK this weekend – could force different species to go into hibernation or migrate south and west, said Paynter.

"I wouldn't have said it was an early spring. I'd like to see a few earlier flowers and a few genuine signs of birds wanting to breed," he added. "It's almost in limbo, waiting for winter to happen, and it hasn't quite happened yet."

http://www.guardian....d?newsfeed=true

[Terminal Moraine]

Saw the first Dandelion in flower this morning, again it was down in the valley a few miles from where I live.

There's nothing flowering up here, if anything had the temerity to try it in the, admittedly, mild conditions the flower would be blasted into submission by the wind.

[Osbourne One-Nil]

We celebrated Easter today.

[4wd]

First Lapwing checking out the nest sites this morning.

Local name for them is Teah-fits [tea-ah-fits]

As in t' teah-fits are back.

[Gray-Wolf]

Our 'Pee-Wits' aren't Four.

[4wd]

It was just the first one, having a look.

I just heard it up the fields about sunrise.

[sundog]

I have a fairly young rose bush and the last week or so it already has 2 yellow flowers,a bit mad for jan i would think.

[knocker]

Given the title the most obvious to me is the mounting hysteria in the model thread.

[TonyH]

A few daffodils in bloom which is very unusual in Jan. Amazed that the bluebell spikes are not only up but 6 inches tall. Bluebells flowering in February anyone? ! Late march is the earliest I have ever seen in flower.

[SP1986]

Roses havent stopped flowering, lots of stuff now budding, including a grape vine.

[bobbydog]

seriously though, i saw two bats tonight

[Crepuscular Ray]

This year's first queen wasp.

[Snowkissed]

Wasp? Goodness me that really is early! I saw five ladybirds, 10 frogs and two bees today in the garden. Also, the crocuses, are in full flower.

Also, forgot to mention that our plum tree is in full bloom.

[laserguy]

Shaven-headed,topless tattooed louts swaggering up and down with the obligatory can of Fosters. Excellent.

[Sprites]

I counted 21 ladybirds in the garden yesterday, the holly bush seems a popular place for them to sunbathe, i left alot of old flower stems standing through the winter, a good place for ladybirds to hibernate.

[bobbydog]

I counted 21 ladyboys in the garden yesterday,

springtime in thailand....

[Sprites]

springtime in thailand....

global warming

[Snowangel-MK]

My three legged hedgehog Spikey waking up from his winter hibernation....

....apart from some expected weight loss (2lb4oz down to 1lb6oz) he seems to be in good health, all ready to be fattened up and start rehab !