30th March

All of the floods have drained now but on a gloriously sunny day yesterday I walked along the river anyway. Pick of the birds were my first Sand Martins of the year with a couple of dozen seen in total. This is early for significant numbers to arrive and Chris Knight also reported around 40 birds excavating at the big river colony near Thrintoft.

In a large ploughed field near Swalefields I saw a small group of Golden Plover drop in, as I walked up to the field there were obviously bigger numbers there and I tallied up almost 350 birds, a really good count for the parish…

Quite a few were in near full summer plumage. It was interesting when they were flushed later around 300 flew off but a group of 50 remained on the ground. This latter flock had a much higher proportion of summer-plumaged birds. Was this group from a separate population with different moult timing? Perhaps from further north with less contact with humans hence their relative ‘tameness’?

Also along the river were three Little Egrets (which now outnumber Grey Heron sightings on the patch) and two Green Sandpipers…

I photographed this tiny bee (together with around 20 others) on a small bank along the river. It’s a species of Miner Bee and it could be seen excavating small holes in the bank. Unfortunately there are 67 species of miner bee in Britain so identification is not easy but I think its appearance (and the fact it has emerged in March) point to it being a Gwynne’s Mining Bee, one of the commoner species…

Not surprisingly given the sunshine and warmth there were some early butterflies around with a smart Brimstone in Ainderby, Peacock and also at least half a dozen Small Tortoiseshells…

24th March

Visiting birders found four Garganey (two drakes) on the floodwater north of Morton Bridge this morning. Unfortunately the birds were flushed and flew off north. I assumed this would be ‘my’ pair plus another but when I walked along the original two birds were still on the floodwater south of the bridge this morning. Slightly better light but still ridiculously distant…

Amazing that three quarters of the Garganey reported in the whole of north-east England were attracted to this short stretch of the Swale!

The flood pools also held four Mute Swans, four Gadwall, 31 Shelduck, 150+ Herring Gulls and 45 Lesser Black-backeds. Along the river I saw two Little Egrets, four Goosander, three pairs of Oystercatcher and a Grey Wagtail. More Chiffchaffs in too, with four singing birds today.

22nd March

A day off today so a quick walk downstream along the river. Twenty five Redwings were the first I’ve seen for a couple of weeks and a Grey Wagtail on the first bend was a pleasant surprise…

Otherwise it was decidedly quiet until I got to a spot where floodwater from last weekend was still lying on the far bank. I could see dozens of gulls but also some whiter shapes. They were Shelduck and as I searched through I tallied up 23, the largest count I have had.

Birds were very distant but I could see a couple of darker shapes. There were three Gadwall, my first of the year, but the bird behind it was a superb drake Garganey! A new bird for the parish. (Terrible photo but it was very gloomy and very far…)

When I checked my other photos later it actually showed there was a pair present.

As I walked back up Potter Lane I had two more Corn Buntings (making a total of seven singing birds) and a flock of 59 Golden Plover drifted over...

I finished off by checking the river north of the road. Three Little Egrets here (none of them ringed) plus a Green Sandpiper and four Goosander. A good morning's birding.

20th March

Just about to set off for work this morning when I spotted a cracking skein of Whooper Swans. They flew straight over the house. By the time I’d grabbed the camera and shot out of the front door they were already well past…

I took some poor pictures but it did mean I could count the flock. There were 38 birds, probably the largest group I have had in the parish. They were also the first I have had over the garden. Normally Whoopers follow the line of the Swale. Someone tweeted me to say they had had a skein of 38 over Whitburn about an hour later. If it was the same birds they would have been travelling at an average of about 45 miles per hour.

Otherwise it has been a pretty quiet period. Floods at the weekend raised hopes…

But apart from a dozen Teal and 16 Curlew in the Bottom Fields they mainly attracted gulls although this included my first Lesser Black-backs of the year.

A Chiffchaff was singing on Monday and a single Little Egret was on the river. Unfortunately I flushed it before I realised it was carrying rings...