Robert Morgan
Barn Swallows on a waymarker sign at RSPB Minsmere in Suffolk
- Credit: Neil Aldridge
Knowingly or not, we all look for signs of spring, says Norfolk Wildlife Trust’s Reserves Officer, Robert Morgan and this year you can help NWT build a record of three key spring species.
I’m sure, like me, you look for the first swallow of the year, for the bluebird beloved of poets is one of our favourite harbingers of spring.
It is perhaps unlikely you make a written note of the date each year, but if you do, you could be a phenologist.
The route of the Western Link.
- Credit: Norfolk County Council
When the Norwich Northern Distributor Road was originally mooted, almost 20 years ago, council bosses wanted it to link to the A47 to the west of Norwich.
But that idea was dropped due to the cost of crossing the Wensum Valley, a site of special scientific interest, with Natural England and the Environment Agency raising concerns.
So the NDR currently stops at the A1067 Fakenham Road.
But the council always made clear it could revive that so-called missing link to the A47 and, in 2016, it was made one of the Conservative-controlled council s priorities.
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Published:
5:00 AM March 6, 2021
The Norfolk Wildlife Trust needs to raise another £30,000 to hit the £625,625 target to expand its reserve Thompson Common
- Credit: Shaun Lawson
On the 95th anniversary of buying its first nature reserve, Norfolk Wildlife Trust (NWT) has appealed for help to raise the final £30,000 needed to make its latest land purchase for nature.
The trust needs to raise £625,625 by May to expand its Thompson Common reserve near Watton, one of the Brecks’ most important nature reserves.
And with the finishing line in sight, it has renewed its appeal on the same day on which the fledgling trust made its first land acquisition 95 years earlier.
Swallows arriving on our shores are a sign that spring is on its way
- Credit: Chris Gomersall
They say one swallow doesn t make a summer, but their return to our shores is a sure sign that spring is on its way.
Norfolk Wildlife Trust (NWT) is asking people to share their first sightings of the iconic bird, along with other species that herald the end of winter in a citizen science survey it s launching on Monday, March 1.
Phenology - the recording and study of the timings of natural events - was pioneered by the 18th century Norfolk naturalist Robert Marsham, who recorded 27 signs of spring around his home in Stratton Strawless, near Norwich.