Larch shoots and Owls

The other day I reported young flowering shoots of Hare's-tail Cotton Grass as my first real sign of spring.  Today I found my second.  There's a small group of young Larch trees down the track from our house that tend to come into leaf much earlier than all the rest.  For the first time this year I spotted the very first young shoots emerging.

Later in the morning Jane and I went up to Goswick.  The dunes were full of Skylarks rehearsing their song and squabbling over territories.  But the best spot was of two Short-eared Owls which got up, one after the other, from a small hummock in the dunes only about ten yards from us.