March was a lot drier than February, starting with a dry but cool week and the return of the sun. There were more sunny days than rainy ones, and temperatures reached higher than the average for March on several days. The cemetery’s trees and shrubs are full of fresh green shoots and leaves as can be seen on many of my photos this month. And one day started with very thick fog, the likes of which I haven’t seen in the cemetery for many years. It created an excellent photographic opportunity, and I was particularly taken with the droplets of moisture on a cobweb adorning the cemetery gates.  

I was thrilled to see a pair of Greenfinches later in the month. This is the first time I’ve ever seen them in the cemetery. The male is pictured at the start of this report, but I couldn’t get a clear photo of the female. I watched them for a few minutes, mixed in with a small flock of Goldfinches, and then they were gone. It’s very encouraging to see a pair though, rather than an individual bird, as this gives me hope that they might build a nest and raise their young here. There are certainly plenty of suitable nesting sites in the cemetery – Greenfinches prefer dense shrubbery and some evergreen trees, although they tend not to nest high up in the trees. Their breeding season is from late March to August. This pair were certainly here at the right time, so I’ll keep a lookout for them next month. 

 

I also heard and finally saw my first Chiffchaffs of the year, that unmistakeable call alerting me to their presence. They’re generally a migratory species, arriving here in early Spring, although the UK’s warming climate means some are staying all year now. 

 

The usual Blue, Great, Coal and Long-tailed Tits were active this month, plus Robins, Wrens, Dunnocks and Blackbirds. I’ve seen one particular Blackbird with a very distinctive white spot above his eye several times over the past two months. This particular day he was busy gathering nesting material. I saw plenty of Chaffinches and Goldfinches too, plus Magpies, Carrion Crows and Wood Pigeons. I saw a pair of Stock Doves near one of our Owl nest boxes and wondered if they were eyeing it up as a potential nest site. We found what might have been a nest laid by a member of the dove family in one of our owl boxes when we checked them in December last year. 

I saw my first Small Tortoiseshell of the year quite late in the month, and I saw the same one again a couple of days later. Just as Blackbirds can have distinctive markings, so can butterflies. This particular butterfly has two squarish white markings on the edge of its upper right wing nearest to its body. I’ve never seen marks like these on other Small Tortoiseshells. It’s possible to tell individual Commas apart too, as their lower wings, being scalloped and delicate, can be prone to tearing, making some of them quite distinctive. The Comma in this report is different to the one I saw last month. I’ve seen a total of 5 different Commas this month. 5 different species of butterfly have therefore been seen in the cemetery this month, as I’ve also seen Peacocks and Brimstones, and a regular cemetery visitor has seen a Red Admiral on a couple of occasions. 

The abundance of Lesser Celandines and Dandelions on the Spring Bank West verge has provided plenty of food for other insects too, and I saw several different species of bee and hoverfly feeding on them. As well as the ones pictured, I also saw Common Flower Flies, a bee that could have been a Common Mourning Bee and Drone Flies. And I saw the first Bee Flies of the year too. I saw hundreds of 8-Spot Ladybirds just about everywhere. I noticed how they seemed to favour dry bark and dead leaves, especially in sheltered sunny spots. 

There’s been a real explosion of colour this month, and as I predicted last month, the Forsythia near the main gates did indeed look spectacular towards the end of March. 

The snowdrops have now finished flowering, although I did find one still in flower earlier in the month. There are daffodils of various varieties adding splashes of colour all around the cemetery. Other flowers I saw this month include Red Dead-nettle, Common Chickweed, Speedwell, Periwinkle, Primroses, Sweet Violets, Wood Anemones and Cowslips. The Goat Willow is now in flower too. I even found a few Bluebells just starting to flower, but I’ll have more to say about them next month. 

I continued to find different types of fungi throughout the month, some more easily identifiable than others. I found one that might be a False Puffball, and watched as it changed over the month. I found some Jelly Ear – this seems to be the most common fungus in the cemetery and is easy to identify. I could only find which genus the others belonged to and not a specific species.  

The first spring month in the cemetery has been a very fertile one with lots of growth, green and yellow being the dominant colours. And the paths in the cemetery, many of which have now been covered with wood chippings by our volunteers, make it a lot easier to walk through the cemetery. The drier weather has helped too – why not make the most of the Easter break and enjoy a walk through this lovely urban woodland just under a mile from the city centre?