18th February

The much milder weather has brought on the first signs of spring in the bird world. Whilst it's still too early for any actual summer migrants we've had a couple of species on the floods which I typically associated with very early spring, namely OYSTERCATCHERS and SHELDUCK. There was one of the former on Friday with the number going up to two over the weekend along with three of the latter species. Whilst we already have Shelduck on the year list, it's around this time of year that they start to be seen on the floods.

The first Oystercatcher of the year

There was also a report of a STONECHAT on the scrub north of the Perch this week from Sam Watson. Since the two extremely cold winters that we had a while back this species has gone from a guaranteed record each year to something much harder to get so it's nice to have one seen on the Patch so early on in the year.

On the gulling front, it's been much quieter this week. I visited each evening from Monday through to Thursday with precious little reward for my efforts apart from a couple of YELLOW-LEGGED GULLS. Then Thomas Miller took over for the weekend and his keen eyes managed to pick out a couple of CASPIAN GULLS, both birds that we've seen earlier on in the month here.

The warmer weather has brought out the first BRIMSTONE butterflies to various local gardens (including my own) and the first bees are now buzzing about as well. With all the talk being of a record breakingly hot year this year, we might well have a very mild and early spring this year.

Addendum
I forgot to mention that Dave Doherty found a male POCHARD on the floods this week. As is usually the case with diving ducks they tend not to linger too long once they discover how shallow and fishless the waters are and it was soon gone. Still as a less than anuual visitor it is a good record for the Meadow.