Herons and Lapwing

A visit to the local heronry on 28th April  - source of all the birds we see here - resulted in a count of 105 nests, down from 125 last year. Many nearly fledged chicks were seen

Earlier in the day I saw my first Swifts for the year whilst approaching Salisbury.

Good news from the down where the Game and Wildlfe Conservation Trust are monitoring the Lapwing as they have for several years now. A phone call at the end of the day reported 4 small chicks were seen. They had left the Stone Curlew plot and were on the the adjacebt grassland - hopefully avaiding the cattle up there, A bird is still brooding a second nest.

Apparently last year the G&WCT team had found a rare jumping spider - Bianor aenescens - caught in a pitfall trap for monitoring the availability of food for the Lapwing. Not that its big ehough to jump out at a human - at 3.5 to 4mm body length it will usually go un-noticed.