This week I head onto a local common to see what is growing there and discover a noisy stonechat, developing damsons and an ash tree that seems to be thriving despite ash dieback.

Epsiode 21. I meet some disapproving Canada geese, consider an old country saying and get distracted by a red kite, ducks and a crane fly.

A longer episode this week as I watch a red tailed bumblebee carefully forage deep inside a bluebell and pause to listen to the spring birdsong. There's also a geometrical clocktower flower and I get a little philosophical about the importance of biodiversity.

Walking on the May bank holiday I find an untidy fairy ring of St George's mushrooms, an early edible (though make sure you are absolutely confident of your identification if you are going to try eating them, there are other similar looking mushrooms that are extremely poisonous) and a real find. Spring is progressing incredibly quickly and we are coming up on peak bluebell so get out into the woods as much as you can.

I stay close to home this week to watch the insects that have appeared in the warmth of the sun to gather nectar and pollinate the flowers they feed from.

I go searching for the tadpoles that I know are lurking in a nearby pond without much success and muse on the fact that younger trees appear to come into leave sooner than mature ones.

The chiffchaffs and blackcaps have returned and the hedges are covered in clouds of white prunus flowers.

Bluebells arrive very early in a sunny hotspot; possible hint of a swallow and a scarlet elf cap makes and appearance.