It would be something of an understatement to say that February has been a wet month, but at least it has been consistent. It is normally far more changeable in character; a harsh and bitter face can quickly soften, alluring us with the promise of spring. A few sunny spells and a rise in temperature at the end of the month will no doubt tempt adders and brimstone butterflies to emerge from hibernation. Hazel catkins are now long and drooping, and clusters of snowdrops peek jauntily at a strengthening sun. They are joined in flower by winter aconites, though their petals do not open until the temperature rises above ten degrees Celsius. The yellow flowers have a distinctive ruff of green leaves beneath them. My garden song thrush has already returned from wherever it spent the winter, and its clear, flute-like notes; repeated several times, ring out in the morning air. I am lucky to have greenfinches too, and one particularly keen male has been calling since the middle of the month. Its ‘song’ is an odd, long, slurping sound, uttered repeatedly from the tallest tree. At the other end of the avian musical scale, a recent visit to NWT Hickling Broad and Marshes revealed skylarks already in full, joyful song - “singing their hymns at heaven’s gate”.

The wet weather has been well received by our wetlands and the county’s ponds are at last full to the brim. A farmland pond near my home, which is normally wet even in midsummer, dried out during last year’s very long dry spell. It sits near the top of a hill, which makes its ability to retain water rather unusual, but nonetheless beneficial to local wildlife. It would be an even greater asset, but neglect and time had left it encased in tall scrub and filled with sediment. It is estimated that over the last hundred years we have lost more than 70% of our farmland ponds. Government subsidies once encouraged farmers to fill them in after it became illegal to allow livestock to drink from ponds and rivers. One happy consequence of last summer’s dry weather is that it made the pond restoration work of NWT’s Wilder Landscapes Team a little easier. Under the District Level Licensing Scheme, an impressive fifty ponds across Norfolk were returned to a healthier, more biodiversity-rich state. As well as restoration of existing overgrown ponds, part of the team’s work is to locate some of the lost farmland ‘ghost ponds’ and, with the landowners’ consent, re-dig them. My local pond was beautifully restored by the team: scrub on its southern edge was cleared to let in sunlight and a digger was used to remove sediment to reach the original clay bed, reprofiling the edges in the process to create habitat zones. The pond appears on Faden’s 1797 map but is probably much older. Over the last few months, it has filled with clear, fresh rainwater and it will be fascinating to see which aquatic plants emerge from the seedbank that has been skilfully revealed.

The pond was probably originally dug for gravel; the sandy soil makes it less likely to have been a lime marl-pit. At this time of year, when the fields are bare, or crops are still low to the ground, round bowl-shaped depressions can be seen across Norfolk’s countryside. Once you get your ‘eye in’, it is remarkable how many there are. These are pingoes - natural features that were once small tundra hillocks created during the last Ice Age. Spring water seeping into the permafrost instantly froze, forming large lenses of ice, like blisters. When the ice melted, the ground collapsed, leaving basins in the earth. My local pond is accompanied by five of these depressions. All are dry, and some have been partly ploughed out. It’s incredible to think that, perhaps, this particular pond’s ability to retain water on top of a hill is due to it being fed by the very spring that formed these depressions tens of thousands of years ago.

One of the best places in the UK to see clusters of pingoes, nearly all of which still hold water, is NWT’s Thompson Common. In fact, it has around 400! It is a fantastic place, astoundingly rich in wildlife and a relic of Norfolk’s lost countryside. NWT has been working to reinstate some of the lost ponds, known as ‘ghost pingos’, on newly acquired land adjacent to the reserve. Many of these remarkable Ice Age ponds were drained or lost to agriculture through deep ploughing and infilling. It has been extraordinary to witness how quickly wildlife has returned to these ancient pingoes. I now have the same hope for my local farmland pond.

What to look out for in March

Smooth newts will already be in our ponds, and frog spawn will appear after warm evenings in March. The newly hatch frog tadpoles are an important source of food for newts. Although the growing tadpoles avenge their lost siblings by being rather partial to newt eggs later in the season. 

Most people are familiar with the early blossom of the cherry plum tree, although various willow trees blossom in March and they can be an important source of nectar for some of the early bee species. In wetland areas, look out for the small sallow mining bee. Even in late February swarms of them can be seen among sallow and other willow species. One day in early March at NWT Upton Fen, I found an isolated sallow tree covered in hundreds of them. Look out for the early colletes bee too, it also can be found on willow trees in March. It was formerly considered a rare bee restricted to the dunes of west Wales. It has spread East and can now be found at favoured sites across East Anglia. 

Take action

Why not consider digging a small wildlife pond, they do not need to be particularly deep or large to attract an array of wildlife to your garden:

• Ensure it is in a sunny spot, with a shallow sloping end that runs down into a deeper area.
• Smooth the edges of any sharp stones and lay in a pond liner.
• Use the removed turfs as edging, this allows for a more natural look.
• Let the pond fill with rainwater - don’t be tempted to fill it with tap water.
• There are many nurseries that sell native water weeds (always ensure that they are native plants). 

It is not advisable to take weed or frog spawn etc. from other local ponds, but you will be surprised how quickly wildlife colonises your pond naturally; amphibians and dragonflies will seem to appear from nowhere.