Spring nesters

Tits and warblers may be hard at it in preparing nests, but for some things are different.

Lapwing - should probably have had chicks running around by now, but instead they left the area, so presumably the eggs were chilled or the chicks died in the rain.

Rook - pretty full grown by now - I saw a pretty well full grown bird hopping around the bushes below the nests in the wood next to our house. If it made enough noise I would guess its parents would find it.

Herons - I did my annual count of the big heronry up the road - a bit late but going into a colony in high wind or in heavy rain is not on - too much disturbance and a risk to chicks. In the end end my worst fears of finding dead chicks on the ground after being blown out of their nests did not happen - and a pretty good count of 125 nests was made - a fairly standard figure. Not much sign of Little Egrets though some were around - will need a check later.

OK not the best - but you can see a heron - the nests are rather high up!

Spring Floods

April appears to have been the wettest ever - well i recorded 5.4 inches (137mm) for the month. This was nearly the combined total of November through to March!
This has resulted in the inevitable flash flood - wait 24 hrs and up goes the water. All that extra water has to go somewhere - and in this case its over the banks and into the central and northern parts of the meadows - including the new snipe area.

So out on the flood today were over 20 Mallard - plus 3 very small ducklings, 3 pairs of Tufted Duck, probably about the same Gadwall, but maybe more, a pair of Little Egrets, 3 Lapwing and 2 Wheatear which were standing rather incongruously on an island in the flood!. This evening (when the above photo was taken) I added 7 Yellow Wagtails to the ornithological goodies!