My first real sign of spring this year was this flowering crocus I found in a wood near Cologne way back in the middle of February. A visit to my Brussels patch earlier this week revealed six occupied Grey Heron nests and provided long overdue confirmation that there are now two Cetti's Warblers present. This is something several us have suspected but not yet been able to confirm so I was pleased to finally hear a second one singing in the distance while I watched a different individual foraging. A Black-headed Gull in summer plumage, while not a major rarity, is something we don't get to see on my patch very often and another sign that spring is just around the corner, although I couldn't locate any Chiffchaffs. Perhaps they knew what was coming and were lingering around the Mediterranean since, this morning, I awoke to several centimetres of snow and this snow-covered female Chaffinch sitting it out next to my balcony.
