No, Really, Where is Spring?

A couple of weeks ago in a post entitled 'Where is Spring' I complained about the lateness of spring and the fact that I'd only seen one insect in my garden this year. Since then things have gone from bad to worse, with cold, windy weather turning into full blown blizzard conditions. I know we've had snow before in late March but I don't recall it being this heavy or long lasting.

The contrast with last year couldn't be greater. Temperatures in the UK in late March last year reached 22 degrees (itself unusual), compared to today's predicted 'high' of 1 or 2 degrees. Not surprisingly, the opportunities to photograph insects and other wildlife last year were significantly greater than this year. Looking back at my images from last year, I had already captured many springtime images in my garden by this point in March:

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Mating Common Frogs, photographed last year on 11th March:

Mating Ladybirds on a Daffodil, photographed last year on 11th March:

A Honeybee on flowering red currant blossom, photographed last year on 11th March:

Hawthorn Shieldbug, photographed last year on 9th March:

and finally a Ladybird taking off, photographed last year on 23rd March:

The contrast: my garden this year on March 23rd (iPhone image):

...not a daffodil in sight, no red currant blossom and it's still snowing! It's obviously worrying what effect this weather will have on wildlife. Also, on a purely selfish note, I feel like I've already been robbed of at least 3 weeks of insect photography!! Let's hope we have a mild autumn to compensate.