We Brits don't half like to bang on about the weather don't we?

One could reasonably assume it's because our particular "brand" of weather is so changeable and unpredictable (despite the millions and millions vainly pumped into forecasting it by various bodies including the oft-derided Met Office).

It's fair to say that this winter has been pretty extreme, even in terms of our unpredictable weather patterns - we've now officially had the wettest winter since records began - and it has been very mild to boot. Then of course there's been the howling gales, storms and floods.

I try not to blog too much about the weather - I find reading blogged weather reports (of what weather we've just had) particularly dull and often inaccurate - but I'll make an exception today as I find myself (once again) more than slightly exasperated at the talk of Spring in the middle of February.

It seems to happen each year.

Again, right now, twitter is awash with people suggesting that spring has sprung. Yes - "#spring" is the flavour of the day it seems.

People are reporting bumblebees flying (I have tweeted that I've seen three species in the garden already for example - the red-tailed bumblebee (almost invariably the first 'round 'ere, the buff-tailed and the white tailed)), butterflies sunbathing (again... I've seen a small tortoiseshell on our path), catkins blossoming, caterpillars are a crawling, daffodils and crocuses flowering, birds singing - so Spring must have sprung right?

Right?

Our survey said. WAH WAAAAH!

WRONG.

Regular visitors to my blog will know I've explained (on more than one occasion) the differences between meteorological seasons  (which we all tend to use, myself included) and the more strict (correct) astronomical seasons.

As an example, depending on how you look at it, Winter either runs from Dec 21st to March 21st (astronomical winter) or Dec 1st to Feb 28th (meteorological winter).  Whichever way you look at it, we either have a month left of (astronomical Winter) or a few days (meteorological Winter).

Can all these people hashtagging "spring" on twitter really have forgotten that last year (2013) we had a relatively mild winter and then a bitterly cold, frrrreeeezzzing Spring?

Down here in semi-rural southeast Berkshire, we were frozen solid until pretty-well the last week of May 2013 (well into Spring by any reckoning and virtually into summer if you like me and most others regard "Spring" to be March, April and May (the meteorological Spring).

Our "Spring" last year gave us snow, ice and bitter winds - for virtually the entire season - so much so that many early breeding birds (owls especially it seemed, suffered greatly last year). 

Do these "hashtag springers" not remember that as the swifts arrived for their three month sojourn in Blighty last year, at the start of May, there was hardly an insect in the sky?

No.

I guess not.

Now admittedly, the Spring of 2013 was as extreme as the Winter of 2013/14 it seems (for virtually opposite reasons) but I for one, am not ready to write off winter and go running towards Spring with a daffodil clenched between my buttocks until AT LEAST APRIL.

Oh sure. The further into the year we get, the less likely we are to experience bitterly cold temperatures / snow / ice like we did last year - and last year might have just been a blip (so to speak) but I'd rather think of the winter of 2013/14 as having not begun yet, rather than we're suddenly catapulted into Spring by the middle of February. There's a decent chance that we won't get a "Winter" (proper) 2013/14 but there's also a chance that the "hashtag springers" will be eating their frozen hash browns, sorry hashtags in March, April or even May as they did last year.

For the record - I hope we don't get a proper winter now (I hate the snow and cold) - even though I well know cold snaps are important for plants especially - they need their period of dormancy - as do many other forms of life. But I'll wait and see what happens if you don't mind rather than stumble blindly towards #spring and end up plummeting over an icy cliff in mid April.

For the record also (for Guardian readers  - who seem to be leading the charge of the light brigade into #spring with regular readers' photos proving #spring has sprung):

1 - Many species of moth caterpillars are very active in mild winters - especially the noctuids. I don't remember a winter when I haven't seen several Large Yellow Underwing moth caterpillars for example - as a(n ex) macro photographer, these large larvae were often the only thing to photograph in the darker months.

2 - There are many daffodils bred to flower earlier and earlier in the year. A daff flowering in February does not signify the start of spring.

3 - Bumblebees and butterflies which overwinter as adults (red admirals etc) are often seen on milder days as late as December and as early as January. Nothing particularly untoward there - even if I've seen three species of bumblebee queens now, so early in the year.

4 - Wildlife is reactive - NEVER proactive. Wildlife reacts to warmer, longer days, rather than proactively predicting spring. This is why birds (for example) are so often caught out by our unpredictable weather. Blue tits will begin nesting as a reaction to caterpillars which have reacted to a few warm days in early Spring. Then WHAMMY! Along comes a three week cold snap in April (for example) and the early nesters fail. The amount of guff on wildlife websites suggesting that the cows have all stood up or the robins have started nesting which means they're forecasting the weather for the next few days or weeks is incredible. 

5 - It's important to remember point 4 above, so I'll reiterate it. Wildlife reacts to weather. It doesn't (and can't) predict it.

6 - Citizen (phenological) science is all very well, but is open to huge errors, is incredibly unscientific and needs to be rigorously carried out for decades before any semblance of relevant pattern might unscientifically reveal itself. Basically.... if you have a full time job which involves you to take your eye off the first flowering primroses, or first swallow arrival over the channel even for a few hours, your phenological citizen "science" is utterly devoid of worth.

I've just read this blog post through and I know it comes across as a) a bit of a rant and b) pretty darned gloomy!

So I do apologise for pouring water on your Arab (sorry hashtag) Spring, but pleeease.... do remember that  (of course) we're still in February and even though we all crave a little (more) warmth and a little sun.... we have a few weeks to wait before we can start to write off the winter...

TBR