Sunday April 9

A warm and sunny morning with a light southerly breeze. For the first time this year there were plenty of butterflies about.

Peacock

Small Tortoiseshell

Brimstone - male

Orange Tip - female

I headed for the south end to walk a transect counting breeding birds. This route turned up the first of two singing Willow Warblers, probably passage migrants.

I reached the flash field and quickly noticed a Gadwall sleeping on the bank of the furthest flash with 20 Teal, two Shelducks, nine Lapwing, and a Redshank.

Sleeping drake Gadwall

It woke up for just long enough for me to see the salient features. I normally see a Gadwall here each year, but it isn't quite annual, so I was pleased to get it under the belt. A pair of Little Ringed Plovers and a Green Sandpiper were present on the nearest flash.

I headed back via the pool, which contained a Little Grebe, a Grey Heron, and three Tufted Ducks. Rather more interesting was the rattling song of a Lesser Whitethroat which I heard three times before it decided to remain silent and thus invisible. This was my earliest ever Lesser Whitethroat in the UK.

One species I had been hoping for then flew into view, my first Swallow of the year. I don't know, Lesser Whitethroat before Swallow, what is the world coming to.

At least eight pairs of Common Buzzards were displaying, but I couldn't pick out any other raptors.

Chaffinch

On the return journey I noticed that the colony of Yellow-legged Mining Bees was extremely active, and that there was another species of mining bee, with wasp-like black and yellow bands, also in the colony, as well as numerous Dark-bordered Bee Flies.

Finally I should mention that I saw three species of deer this morning, Roe, Muntjac, and Fallow. The latter rarely visits the patch in daylight hours, and the ones I have seen always seem to be coming from Clowse Wood, as they were today.