Our old friend the north wind doth blow. We’re well into March, but spring still feels far away. This afternoon, toiling into bitter gusts, I was about to call it a day and head for home, when I saw the treecreeper. There were two of them in the alders.Leaving the footpath for a closer look, I found myself stepping into spring – the alders grew in the lee of the woods and were sheltered from the wind. Protected from the strickening wind-chill factor, the air temperature soared. Enjoying the relative warmth, I watched the treecreepers mounting the alder trunk. They always go up trees, never down, climbing the trunk in tight, ascending feeding spirals. This habit has shaped the very way they look. Their mottled brown and white plumage camouflages them picking their way up a tree