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This year’s spring equinox, when night equals day, falls on 20th March in the Northern Hemisphere. For the Romans, it was a moment that signalled the start of a new year. For naturalists today, it’s a time of high excitement, when birdsong steps up a notch and hedgerows are blanketed in the snow-white, star-shaped flowers of blackthorn – Britain’s first native tree to blossom.