- Curlews have been congregating near the village for the last few weeks.
- Siskins have been spotted nibbling on sunflower hearts on the feeder.
- We saw our first Peacock butterfly in the sunshine today (surely too early).
It will be the first day of spring on 20th March (astronomical). We thought it would be nice to share your first sightings of the year, send in your observations to the blog using the comments field below.
PARWICH.ORG 
I had my first sighting of Duke of Edinburghs yesterday!
Was the DofE group a flock, a gaggle or a murmuration? Or perhaps more likely a ‘pandemonium’ or ‘prattle’ (collective nouns for parrots apparently …).
Think we should definitely have a collective noun for them. My suggestion would be ‘backpack’ given their most noticable feature.
The plaintive song of the Mistle Thrush.
Woodpeckers have been drumming for a while.
Notice how the Jackdaws seem to be flying round in twos now.
Skylark singing and displaying near Minninglow this weekend.
Mrs Monty making noises about the garage needing tidying out 😦
We have a garage :-O
Yes it is lovely to hear the skylarks again, saw a bumble bee today too!
I was told that someone had spotted the first sand martin at Carsington over the w/e. Another sure sign that spring is here. Let’s hope the sand martins will finally decide to use the man-made sand bank, complete with nesting holes, near the Wildlife Centre at Carsington. The martins have turned their noses/beaks up at the sand bank over the past few years, refusing to use it.
If the sand martins have arrived the swallows should be arriving soon too, wonder who will be the first to spot one in the village?
The Swifts are my favourite
A birder friend of mine told me swallows have been spotted on the south coast, so they are on their way!
The swallows should be here pretty soon then, only the M25, M1 & A50 to go!!!
Worth keeping an eye on here http://www.derbyshireos.org.uk/news.php