With hedgehogs waking up from hibernation and daffodils emerging earlier than usual, it begs the question: has spring sprung early this year?

The weather has been ’very mild’ across the winter, according to the Met Office, which could be the reason for these changes coming slightly earlier in the year.

Lambing season doesn’t traditionally begin until March, but lambs have been spotted in some of the island’s fields.

Daffodils aren’t supposed to bloom until late February, going into March.

Gary Salisbury, of the Met Office, told the Isle of Man Examiner why the temperature has been so mild during the winter.

He said: ’January has certainly been very mild.

’The mean air temperature across January was 7.3°C, which is about one degree above the long-term average.

’Although there were eight nights with a ground frost, there’s been no air frost at all.’

He added: ’The 30cm subsoil temperature has been unusually high, with a mean of 7.5°C.

’It’s also been very dry - 24.6mm in the rain gauge is only about 30% of the long term average for January.’

He explained that there was still time for conditions to change.

Mr Salisbury said: ’It’s still only February though, so there’s still several weeks of potential for cold weather. The big snow in Kirk Michael in 2013 was in March, and lay on the ground until April.’