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Springtime in Perthshire - Nature Diary
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- By late March climbing honeysuckle has broken into leaf and dog's mercury is greening the floor of older woods, as at Lady Mary's Walk in Crieff.
- Ospreys arrive in the last week of March and lay eggs about a month later - watch them from the hide at Loch of the Lowes, near Dunkeld.
- Blackthorn flowers in early April, before leaves appear - find the cascades of frothy white blossom in hedgerows and woodland edges.
- Bats end their hibernation in April and can be seen flying at dusk - look for them in woodland clearings and over water in places like Faskally Forest.
- Rooks are among the first birds to nest, during April the treetop colonies are particularly noisy as they feed their young.
- Sunny days in April bring down a rain of conifer seeds from opening cones in forests such as Drummond Hill, Allean and Craigvinean.
- The dawn chorus reaches a crescendo in April and is best heard in mixed woodland, such as the RSPB reserve at Killiecrankie.
- By late April wood anemones, lesser celandine and violets brighten the ground in deciduous woodlands like Black Spout Wood and the Den of Alyth.
- Listen for the clamour of woodpecker broods demanding to be fed - you can hear the noise coming from trees holes in early May.
- At the Hermitage look for the nursery dreys of red squirrels - huge balls of sticks wedged in the fork of a tree where litters of young are born in May.
- During May most deciduous trees burst into leaf - birch and willow are followed by oak, ash and alder. Observers can predict the weather from the country lore: "If the oak is out before the ash, we're in for a splash; if the ash is out before the oak, we're in for a soak".
- At dusk on warm evenings in May, badger cubs emerge from woodland setts and roving woodcock fly over their territories making a curious croaking.
- For good displays of bluebells, head for Craig Wood by Dunkeld or Darroch near Blairgowrie during the first three weeks of May.
- By the end of May new tree seedlings have emerged in woodland glades from Rannoch Forest to Kinnoull Hill - wherever light hits the forest floor.
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