17th April

Dare I whisper it…Spring seems to be definitely here. This is in marked contrast to yesterday’s surprisingly cold conditions (which nevertheless saw good numbers of Willow Warblers arrive with at least four birds singing in the Magic Garden alone).

Today was bright and warm and birds have flooded in with Blackcaps and Willow Warblers seeming to be everywhere. A dozen Swallows were swooping low over the muck heap field and there were four cracking Wheatears on the old paddocks here.

On the river Sand Martins were now in their hundreds and there was frenetic activity at one of the nest sites. The technique appeared to be that the one bird would excavate and then seemed to pass something to its mate, was it getting rid of the spoil or was the one bird feeding the other? The burrowing bird would also repeatedly ‘belly flop’ into the river presumably to clean off the mud from its feathers.

To round off an enjoyable couple of hours there were no less than three Barn Owls hunting in the bright sunshine in the rough field by Morton Bridge.