Nature bursts into life after the long winter. Blossom flowers in the hedgerows and lambs frollic in the fields. Tadpoles begin to hatch and cuckoos can be heard making their familiar sound.
Download the cowslips picture to use as a monthly desktop calendar (click on the orange link and then right click on the picture and select 'set as background')
Wildlife to look out for
Snakes can be seen at Studland in Dorset, dormice come out of hibernation and cuckoos can be heard. See below for where to find butterflies, tadpoles and badgers. Black grouse and lapwings can be found on moorland. Gorse starts to flower and snipe perform their courtship dance.
NTPL / Andrea Jones
Flowers
Adders tongue fern, bluebell, Lesser Celandine, wild garlic, cowslips, early orchids, early gentian
Spring time is the time to visit woodlands before the trees are covered in leaves. It's at this time of year that woodland floors are carpeted in a mass of colour. Look out for early flowering orchids and bluebells surrounded by the scent of wild garlic in woodlands. Blackthorn flowers in the hedgerows.
South East: Denbies Hillside (orchids), Box Hill (orchids)
Wales: Gower Coast & Common, Berthllwyd Farm (Brecon)
North West: Sandscale Haws
Wessex: Rodborough (Earl’s Purple orchid), Golden Cap (Green-Winged Orchid), South Purbeck Coast (especially Spyway Farm, where 1,000s can flower in a good year) (Spider Orchid and gentian)
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Migrating birds
House Martins, warblers, swallows, swifts, Sand Martins
Migrating birds from Africa and Southern Europe flock into the UK to breed. Look out for flocks as they come in from abroad.
South East: Winchelsea, Frensham Common (warblers)
Wessex: Brownsea Island, Purbeck
East of England: Dunwich Heath (warblers)
Northern Ireland: Crom Estate (swallows, warblers)
South East: Hindhead Common & Devil’s Punchbowl (warblers)
Devon & Cornwall: Lizard Properties
NTPL / Joe Cornish
Sea birds
Arctic, Common, Sandwich Tern. Puffin, Razorbill, Guillemot, Eider Duck, Shag, Oystercatcher, Kittiewake, Fulmar, Greater and Lesser Black-Backed Gull, Rock Pipit, Ringed Plover, Cormorant, Gannet and Turnstone
Between April and early August the cliffs around the Farne Islands become alive with about 20 species of birds. The Farne islands have the highest number of breeding birds than any other part of the Northumberland coast. Puffin arrive at Lundy to breed over the summer and raise their chicks in rabbit warrens.
North East: Farne Islands
Devon and Cornwall: (Puffin) Lundy
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Butterflies and bees
Green Hairstreak Butterflies, Orange Tip Butterflies, Mining Bees out of hibernation
The National Trust is the largest and most important landowner for butterflies and moths in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. Look out at countryside properties and gardens for butterflies emerging out of hibernation. Mining Bees are also beginning to come out of hibernation (warm places in the South: heaths, downs, woodlands, gardens)
Wessex: (Rodborough Common), Green Hairstreak Butterflies (many Southern Downs), Green Hairstreak Butterflies (many Southern Downs)
NTPL / David Sellman
Tadpoles
Look out for tadpoles starting to hatch in ponds.
South East: Frensham Common
North West: Sandscale Haws
Badgers
Male badgers are out roaming the countryside, whilst the young are starting to come out and play round the setts entrances.
Northern Ireland: Divis & Black mountain (Belfast), Strangford Lough
Wessex: Woodchester Park
East Midlands: South Peak Caves
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