Friday April 2

 A cloudy morning with the wind swinging around into the north-east. It was rather chilly. My main plan was to try to catch up with the Little Ringed Plovers which Dave saw earlier in the week. Disappointingly they appeared to be absent. A male Sparrowhawk perched on a post next to the furthest flash was probably a deterrent.

Sparrowhawk

The 16 Teal, two Coot, and three Shelducks seemed unphased though. Sam saw four Shelducks in the early afternoon.

So, to pass the time I chose to try filming the Avocets which were still present, swimming around the nearest flash. Check out the Wren, and Chiffchaff singing loudly in the background.

Although I recorded 12 Chiffchaffs and three Blackcaps as I walked around, there seemed to be little chance of any new migrants. It was also too cold for many insects to be on the wing, so I settled for photographing a few plants.

Either Blackthorn or Cherry Plum blossom (not sure)

Barren Strawberry

The Bluebells are starting to flower in Bannams Wood

As you can tell from the last photograph, I was walking back along the road. I heard a Siskin flying over, and also a couple of Redpolls, before a Red Kite put in an appearance.

Red Kite

And that was about as good as it got.

However, the last few days in the garden have been quite entertaining. All the usual bees appeared when the temperature was warm, and I spotted this tiny snail. I posted a picture on Twitter, but received no feedback whatever, so I guess I'm not the only person unable to identify it. Maybe some kind of Glass Snail ? Thanks to irecord expert it was identified as a juvenile White-lipped/Black-lipped Snail.

Juvenile Cepaea ag (White-lipped/Black-lipped Snail)

It is Garden Moth Survey Day, so the trap will be out tonight. Don't hold your breathe...too cold.

But I did catch some moths, as follows:

Early Grey    1

Common Quaker    7

Small Quaker    4

Hebrew Character    1

All are species I have already caught this year, and all are common.