Spring?

On this glorious morning with not a cloud in the sky, I heard a chaffinch singing. This for me is the clarion call for Spring.
It was not the full song of the bird, for I have noticed in past years that it takes a few weeks for the cock birds to get fully into their song. As the breeding season approaches and the need to reinforce their territorial rights increases, so the song improves. In many countries on the continent of Europe they hold singing competitions with the chaffinch and this species is of particularly well suited as they will sing whenever they hear the song of a rival.
I walked within a few yards of a kestrel yesterday. It had its back to me whilst sat on a fence post engrossed in what it could hear in the grass tussocks below. It moved off gracefully and perched in a tree, probably waiting for me to pass by.
The new lake (the result of a landslip near a local exhausted sand quarry) is now full, and the stream, whose route was interrupted is once more flowing along its full course.