A little off-topic I know, but both are very weather dependent.

The wildflowers have put the cold December behind them and are now
early. Two of my particular spring favourites, which I find a good
comparator to previous years (and they are easily recognisable and
grow in the same places year after year) are honesty (purple flowers)
and cuckoo flower, or lady's smock (small pink flowers). Both are out
nearly two weeks ahead of each of their respective first flowerings in
the last 2 years.

I saw my first English bluebell on 3rd April and the first in the
woods on 9th April; again just under two weeks earlier than 2009 and
2010. The early warmth has encouraged them out.

As a result of the early wildflowers and the recent exceptional April
warmth, I saw the first 2 orange tip butterflies of the year 3 days
ago, on 10th April (together with a comma, the same morning - good
spots!).

I would imagine that wildflowers and butterflies are now similarly
early in other areas, after a warmer than average march and such a
notable warm start to April.

On Apr 13, 7:33*pm, Dawlish wrote:
A little off-topic I know, but both are very weather dependent.

The wildflowers have put the cold December behind them and are now
early. Two of my particular spring favourites, which I find a good
comparator to previous years (and they are easily recognisable and
grow in the same places year after year) are honesty (purple flowers)
and cuckoo flower, or lady's smock (small pink flowers). Both are out
nearly two weeks ahead of each of their respective first flowerings in
the last 2 years.

I saw my first English bluebell on 3rd April and the first in the
woods on 9th April; again just under two weeks earlier than 2009 and
2010. The early warmth has encouraged them out.

As a result of the early wildflowers and the recent exceptional April
warmth, I saw the first 2 orange tip butterflies of the year 3 days
ago, on 10th April (together with a comma, the same morning - good
spots!).

I would imagine that wildflowers and butterflies are now similarly
early in other areas, after a warmer than average march and such a
notable warm start to April.

I've noticed that too but I'm not sure whether I'm pleased: it's all
very nice now, but... a spring running early also presumably means an
early end to spring, which I suspect is the last thing anyone wants.
I'm kind of hoping for cool (but bright) weather for the remainder of
April to slow things down a little - whether we'll get that though is
another question.

Nick