March Nature Journaling: How To Notice The Changes
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Here’s the thing about March. You wait and wait through January and February, peering at the ground for signs of life, and then suddenly March arrives, and absolutely everything happens at the same time. Blossom. Birdsong. Frogs. Butterflies. The first bumblebee. Baby lambs, if you live anywhere near farmland. It can feel genuinely overwhelming if you’re trying to keep track of it all.
Which is exactly why a nature journal is so useful this month. Without some kind of record, March blurs into a single exciting green rush. With one, you start to unpick the layers. You notice that the blackthorn flowers before the leaves, while the hawthorn does the opposite. The bumblebee appeared on a specific warm afternoon in the second week of the month. You start to feel the complexity underneath what looks like a simple “spring is here” moment.
I’ve been looking forward to writing this post all year. March is the month that makes the cold grey ones feel worth it.
The Equinox and What It Actually Means
The spring equinox falls around the 20th or 21st of March in the northern hemisphere. This is the point where day and night are roughly equal in length, and after which the days become longer than the nights. In the southern hemisphere, of course, this is the autumn equinox. On the same date, an opposite experience.
It’s worth noting in your journal. Not just as a fact, but as something you actually feel. Go outside around sunset on the equinox and notice where the sun goes down. Mark it somehow. A sketch, a note about what landmark it disappears behind. Then come back in June and notice how far it’s moved. That’s one of those things that sounds dry when you read it, but is genuinely startling when you witness it yourself.
The equinox has been marked by cultures around the world for thousands of years. Many ancient stone monuments, including Chichen Itza in Mexico and various sites in the British Isles, are aligned with the equinox sunrise or sunset. Humans have always paid attention to this moment. Your journal is part of that very long tradition.
What’s Happening Out There in March
So much. Too much, almost. Here’s a rough guide to what to look out for, though bear in mind timing varies a lot depending on where you are and what the weather’s doing.
Blossom. Blackthorn is usually first in the UK, its white flowers appearing on bare black branches before a single leaf has opened. Then comes cherry, then later hawthorn. In North America, serviceberry and redbud are often among the first trees to flower, depending on your region. Blossom is fleeting. It’s worth making a real effort to note when it appears and when it’s gone, because it goes fast.
Frogs and toads. If you didn’t find frogspawn in February, you’ll almost certainly find it now. Toad spawn looks different from frog spawn. Frog spawn comes in clumps, while toad spawn is laid in long strings wrapped around underwater plants. In North America, spring peepers and chorus frogs are making a tremendous noise in ponds and wetlands by mid-March in many states.
The dawn chorus is building. By mid to late March, the dawn chorus is becoming something quite extraordinary. It starts before sunrise, and the number of species joining in increases week by week as migrants begin to return. Set an alarm one morning. Go outside at first light. Just stand and listen for ten minutes. It is, I promise, completely worth losing a bit of sleep over.
The first migrants. In the UK, chiffchaffs are usually the first summer migrants to arrive, often in early to mid-March. Their repetitive two-note call (which does, in fact, sound like “chiff chaff”) is one of the most welcome sounds of spring. In the US, the arrival of tree swallows, eastern phoebes, and American woodcocks signals the same turning of the tide. The BirdCast migration forecast tool is brilliant for US readers and actually predicts migration movements in real time.
Butterflies and bumblebees. The first warm day in March can bring out queen bumblebees that have been hibernating since autumn. They’ll be large, slightly sluggish, and very important. They’re looking for early flowers. If you have a garden, this is a good reminder to leave some dandelions alone. In the UK, brimstone butterflies are often the first of the year. In North America, mourning cloaks and cabbage whites appear early in many regions.
Wildflowers. Wood anemones, lesser celandines, and primroses in the UK. In the eastern US, hepatica, spring beauty, and trout lily. In the west, look for desert wildflowers starting to emerge, depending on winter rainfall. The Wildflower Search database is a useful tool for North American readers trying to identify what they’re seeing.
Slowing Down When Everything Speeds Up
There’s a genuine irony in March. The whole world speeds up, making it even harder to slow down and pay attention. The days get busier. There’s more light, so there’s more to do. And paradoxically, the more exciting things are outside, the easier it is to just rush past them.
This is something I’ve been thinking about a lot while putting this series together. The seasons where there’s the most to see are often the seasons where we pay the least attention, because we’re caught up in the energy of it all.
So my suggestion for March is this. Pick one thing and follow it. Just one. It might be a particular tree coming into blossom. A pond where you’re watching for frogspawn. A patch of ground where something is emerging. Visit it regularly. Note what changes. That single thread, followed carefully, will teach you more than trying to notice everything at once.
This is actually how experienced naturalists work. Rather than trying to see everything, they develop deep familiarity with particular species or places. Robin Wall Kimmerer writes beautifully about this kind of attentive relationship with the natural world in her book Braiding Sweetgrass, which is well worth reading if you haven’t already.
Journaling in Unpredictable Weather
March weather is notoriously unreliable. It can be warm and sunny one day and snowing the next. In many parts of the US, this is especially true. This is actually brilliant for journaling, because the weather has such a direct impact on what you see and when.
Try noting the temperature and conditions alongside your observations this month. Not in a technical way. Just “cold north wind, felt wintry again” or “first genuinely warm afternoon, everything suddenly buzzing.” Over a few years, these notes have become a fascinating record of how variable spring can be.
If you want to go a step further, the Weather Underground personal weather station network lets you find hyperlocal weather data from stations near you. Useful if you want to add accurate temperatures to your records.
Keep a pencil in your pocket this month rather than a pen. Pencils don’t care about rain. Your journal might get a bit damp, but that’s fine. Damp pages are part of the record too.
March Journalling Prompts
As always, pick one and sit with it. Don’t try to do all of them at once.
- Find a tree in blossom near you. Sketch just one branch, as carefully as you can. Note the date. Come back and sketch the same branch in two weeks.
- Go outside at dawn on one morning this week. Write down every sound you can hear, and note which direction each one comes from.
- Find a pond, ditch, or puddle. Look at it for five full minutes. Write down everything you observe.
- Track the first sighting of five different insects this month. Note the date, time, temperature, and what they were doing.
- On the equinox, note exactly where the sun sets. Write a short entry about what equal day and night feel like from where you are.
- Write about something that surprised you this month. Something you didn’t expect to see or hear. Where were you? What were you doing when you noticed it?
Why March Is the Best Month to Start
If you’ve been reading along since January and still haven’t started a journal, March is honestly the best possible time to begin. There’s so much to notice that you’ll never be stuck for something to write about. The momentum of the season carries you.
You don’t need to go back and fill in January and February. Just start now, with today’s date, and whatever you can see from your window or your nearest outdoor space. A garden, a park, a verge, a tree in a car park. Nature doesn’t require countryside. It just requires attention.
The Wildlife Trusts in the UK run their 30 Days Wild challenge in June, but the spirit of it, one small wild thing per day, is a lovely approach for March too. In the US, the National Wildlife Federation has great resources for connecting with nature wherever you live.
March won’t wait. It’s happening right now, outside your window. Go and look.
Next month: April, migrants, and the full explosion of spring. Plus, keeping records of what arrives when is more important than ever.
Useful links mentioned in this post:
