#chickweed

Two key photos from my February 2026 of a Snow Bunting at Sandy Point on Hayling Island and view at Blackwater in the New Forest and month reflections

In a month with much wet and wild winter weather typical of this season I still enjoyed a lot of wondrous colour in nature. The energetic white of a stunning Snow Bunting and snowdrops and snowflake flowers, the invigorating yellow of lesser celandine, dandelions, daffodils and gorse, the verdant green of petty spurge and Siskins, the captivating purple tones of crocuses and sweet violet, bits of cheery blue sky and water and bubbly Blue Tits and the striking red of hawthorn berries and rose hips, scarlet elf cups, Redwings and Redpolls. Fine spectacles enjoyed this month was seeing hundreds of wading birds including many Dunlins, Knots, Grey Plovers and Bar-tailed Godwits cramming onto offshore islands as noisy Mediterranean Gulls with their heads gaining ever more of their jet-black breeding plumage colour began to gather at the nesting site at Hayling Island Oysterbeds; a perfect emblem of how wintered endured yet spring was promised this month.

It was a pleasure to witness courting Great Crested Grebes with their elaborate dancing at Lakeside Country Park this month with Peregrines a regular sight across Winchester including at the cathedral (their established nest site but they chose to nest elsewhere nearby last year) as they gear up for breeding. Other standout bird species I saw this month included Hawfinch, a trio of Dunnock, Wren and Song Thrush seen and heard calling/singing so wonderfully, Redwings, Treecreeper, Goldcrest, Chaffinch, Lesser Spotted Woodpecker, Green Woodpecker, Great Grey Shrike, Woodlark, Dartford Warbler, Stock Dove, Raven, Buzzard, Red Kite, Sparrowhawk, magical Merlin, precious views of Brent Geese, Canada Geese symbolising spring’s gradual emergence at Lakeside, Great Northern Diver, Jack Snipe and Whimbrel.

It was a very interesting floral month as the year seemed to stride through the late winter period and come to the brink of spring with a lot of flowers out early in our ever-changing world. Other key flowers seen in a bit of a winter/spring mix included winter heliotrope, chickweed, common whitlowgrass, birdseye speedwell, coltsfoot, daisy, red deadnettle, hyacinth, blackthorn, groundsel and hazel catkins and female flowers. Mistletoe, beet, ivy, dock and cuckoo-pint leaves a key sight at this time of year, snowberries, old man’s beard and hogweed seed heads were also good to see.

Stellaria media, or chickweed, is often considered a nuisance or just something to throw to the chickens when found outside of its native habitat (Eurasia).

WELL I’m here to tell you that you are missing out on this actually delicious plant. It’s one of my favorite spring greens to eat raw. I pile it on top of sandwiches and use it in salads. It tastes like oak leaf lettuce with a dash of sweetness similar to corn.