14th April

The most intriguing sighting this weekend was a pipit seen very briefly flying over the river yesterday, it seemed to have plain underparts and my first thought was Water Pipit but despite searching by Chris and I the bird wasn’t seen again.

Although the weekend was generally sunny it was distinctly cold and this seems to have slowed migration so it was a pretty quiet period. Only one more Swallow record this week; a single over the church seen by Andy J as he came out of the pub. Sand Martins are well established back now…

With around a dozen Chiffchaff in total seen/heard...

A couple more Blackcaps were singing near the river and I had my first Willow Warbler yesterday with a second bird singing behind our house this afternoon.

Winter thrushes were still around with a flock of 50+ Fieldfares by the river on Friday and small numbers feeding in the fields on the Thrintoft path yesterday…

More surprising were three Redwing seen over Ainderby today, the first sightings for almost a month.

The only other sightings of note were six Snipe on the oxbow and a pair of Teal, six Goosander, two Little Egret and a flock of around 75 Golden Plover on the river by Swalefields.

I also photographed this Goldcrest in the Magic Garden, a relatively common bird but for once showing relatively well as it tried to out-sing a rival…