Sunday April 15

After the first warm day of spring yesterday, today was a bit of a setback weatherwise. The grey skies were back and despite a moderate southerly breeze it was rather chilly again.

Any thoughts of walking along the road were scuppered by the presence of a cycle race, and indeed a nasty crash at the bottom of the slope before the Netherstead turn. We later saw two ambulances and hope that the cyclists involved were not too badly injured.

While I was waiting for Dave I saw the first House Martin of the summer, although it disappeared thereafter. The only other new migrant we could find was Lesser Whitethroat. In fact we recorded three singing birds around the site and even glimpsed two of them.

Disappointingly, the ploughed fields were almost devoid of birds with the exception of about 80 Linnets still feeding on the field by Morton Common Farm. The real frustration is that the Flash Field is still not pulling many migrants in. A single Green Sandpiper and a pair of Little Ringed Plovers were the only waders other than Lapwings (and there were only four of them).  The situation was a bit more positive as far as ducks are concerned. In fact six Gadwall was a record count for the patch, while there was still a single Shoveler and about eight Teal.

Drake Gadwall

At the end of the visit our morning was summed up as we struggled to convince ourselves we had heard a distant Willow Warbler near Clowse Farm. In the end we gave up, but I did see an interesting looking bee on the fence.

Clarke's Mining Bee Andrena clarkella

It is some kind of mining bee, probably Andrena clarkella, but I suspect the slightly out of focus photo may not prove acceptable as a record shot.