Signs of spring at last!

I had a walk around the Meadows yesterday to look for signs of spring. To me it seems to have been a very long winter with snow again this morning. However there are a few signs of improvement.
The first sign that things are at last beginning to change was the sound of two Chiffchaffs, one at either end of the Meadows. I did manage to see one of them. A Great Spotted Woodpecker looked a bit odd perched on the trunk of a very small oak sapling which was only about three feet high. Several Redpolls were in the hedge by the railway track and a couple of Reed Buntings were in the bushes behind the pond. Two male Mallards were at the back of the pond and were photographed later by Joan and Geoff Tyndall.
Lots of other birds were singing, Blackbirds, Song Thrush, Blue and Great Tits, Nuthatch and Chaffinches were all defending territory. High above a pair of Cormorants circled two or three times before moving off.
There is a large patch of frogspawn in the pond, I hope it survives, but it has been frozen a few times.
The plant life seems weeks behind where it usually is by now but there are signs if life.

Mallards on the pond - Photo by Joan Tyndall