Thursday 2nd April

So here we are in April already. It's been a predictably quiet March with just the first smattering of spring migrants to keep one interested. Talking of which Adrian Gray found the first SWALLOW (for the whole of the county actually) when he saw one zipping north along the river on the 31st March and Steve Lavington added a second one yesterday. There have been a few more singing Chiffchaffs around and there was another LITTLE RINGED PLOVER on the floods today, in the same place as the last one along the "North Reach". Apart from that it's been the usual REDSHANK in numbers varying up to a peak of 7, SHELDUCK (up to 10) and OYSTERCATCHERS (usually 2 but sometimes 3). There was a nice flock of 80 odd Golden Plover this evening in transitional plumage. On the duck front numbers are definitely dwindling now though a group of Gadwall have now turned up as they do each spring, (up to 7). Two drake GOOSANDER were also still hanging around this evening.

So now that we're into April it's time to look out for the rest of the warblers as well as some spring passage waders. Let's hope that we have a better selection than last year which was very poor.

Not something that you see every day but it gave the Meadow a sort of "Lord of the Rings" feel and it was nice to listen to the music whilst scanning the floods

Addendum
Mary MacDougall also saw 7 Sand Martins and 1 Swallow during an hour long stint standing by Burgess Field Gate. In addition she's seen a couple more Swallows over the last few days.