Saturday 23 March 2013

No, Really, Where is Spring?

A couple of weeks ago in a post entitled 'Where is Spring' I complained about the lateness of spring and the fact that I'd only seen one insect in my garden this year. Since then things have gone from bad to worse, with cold, windy weather turning into full blown blizzard conditions. I know we've had snow before in late March but I don't recall it being this heavy or long lasting.

The contrast with last year couldn't be greater. Temperatures in the UK in late March last year reached 22 degrees (itself unusual), compared to today's predicted 'high' of 1 or 2 degrees. Not surprisingly, the opportunities to photograph insects and other wildlife last year were significantly greater than this year. Looking back at my images from last year, I had already captured many springtime images in my garden by this point in March:

CLICK TO ENLARGE IMAGES


Mating Common Frogs, photographed last year on 11th March:



Mating Ladybirds on a Daffodil, photographed last year on 11th March:



A Honeybee on flowering red currant blossom, photographed last year on 11th March:



Hawthorn Shieldbug, photographed last year on 9th March:



and finally a Ladybird taking off, photographed last year on 23rd March:



The contrast: my garden this year on March 23rd (iPhone image):


...not a daffodil in sight, no red currant blossom and it's still snowing! It's obviously worrying what effect this weather will have on wildlife. Also, on a purely selfish note, I feel like I've already been robbed of at least 3 weeks of insect photography!! Let's hope we have a mild autumn to compensate.

9 comments:

  1. I couldn't agree more. I did manage 1 bee and 1 ladybird photo in mid february but that's been it.
    I try to be optimistic about spring coming but it's getting harder every day :)

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  2. Maybe we'll just skip spring this year and go straight to summer :)

    Thanks for commenting.

    Matt

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    Replies
    1. I'm worried we'll skip summer as well and just merge into next winter!

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    2. blimey Simon, you might be right :-o

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  3. You can blame me for the weather Matt. It's because I just bought an MP-E65. :-(

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  4. Unlucky Paul, I bet you can't wait to test it out. Best of luck with it!

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  5. Yes, not the best time to buy it! I'm crossing everything in hope of an actual summer this year! :-) Thanks Matt. I've been testing it out on my attic flies. Its not as easy as you make it look! Enjoying it so far though.

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  6. Usually I experience the opposite of Europe climate (ie; long winter there longuer summer here) But this year looks the weather is on track in my place, the first signs of coming autumn are here.

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    Replies
    1. finally the weather is now looking a little better here and feeling a bit more like spring. But there are very few insects about, I hope they haven't been too badly affected by the cold weather. I hope you have a nice Autumn.

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