Which bird will appear in an April Fools this time around? And the answer was none, at least in any of my social media 'stuff'.
April 3rd Lakeside
A brief coffee stop here in cold and grey conditions produced little but it was a nice surprise to find two Great Crested Grebes with two young on one parent's back. A little too far off for my short lens.
This singing male Reed Bunting was nice, quite close, but just too high.
April 2nd Blashford
The day got off to a poor start as it was impossible to park at the usual roadside site in the north of the forest; a deep drainage trench had been dug from the main road through to the carpark. And it was too cold in the strong north-easterly to walk back to the viewpoint.
On to Blashford where there was some shelter but yesterday's Little Gulls had, unsurprisingly, departed. Three LRPs were mostly distant but very active and noisy at times and a year tick. Four Black-necked Grebes were nice and almost in summer plumage - good through the scope but too far for pictures. Two Swallows were NfY in amongst the 35+ Sand Martin's.
Insect wise a male Orange Tip sparring with a Brimstone and later a Speckled Wood were nice but the days total of about 15/7 was disappointing. Last year's Early Colletes seemed absent but the Andrena vaga site was being assessed by George Else and others including Chris G, someone I've not bumped into in years.
March 27th Arundel WWT
