Is it spring yet?

We've passed the vernal equinox so spring is officially here but there's no sign of any grass growth.  There are some signs that spring is on its way, with birds that winter in warmer climes starting to arrive.  Our first Chiffchaffs of the season started singing this week and a common lizard was seen on the course.  Blackcaps will turn up soon but we'll probably have to wait until mid April for the Nightingales to start singing.  Nightingales have been amazingly consistent in their arrival date on the course, with very few exceptions we've first heard them singing on the 14th of April.

Common Lizard
(Usually too quick to photograph but it was a cool day so this one was a little sluggish)

Bank Vole (Watering forest near the maintenance buildings)

Transplanting gorse

We've transplanted well established gorse plants into the area left of the 18th green that was previously covered with bramble.  When these grow, they will provide an evergreen screen between the 18th green and the maintenance area and access track.  Two sycamore trees were also removed to reduce shade and increase air movement on the 18th green.

Weather summary for February

This winter has been extremely mild and although February was about a degree warmer than average at 5.9° this is much closer to normal than the record breaking extremes we had earlier in the winter.  The highest temperature was 14.9° on the 21st and the lowest  -1.3° on the 16th.  There was 21.2mm of rainfall which is much lower than the 36.6mm average for the month.