Tuesday March 1 - Meteorological Spring

 So here we go, Spring is here. The Met Office says it starts today, so that's the cue I needed to start recording breeding birds.

What to do? I decided to "officially" record some of the early breeders. This meant a trip to the two heronries I have come across during February to count the occupied nests.

Heronry A contained five nests, and heronry B 10 nests. I don't suppose heronries are a big secret, but one of these was at a private site which hadn't been reported to the County recorder for over 10 years, so I'll say no more about it.

I also kept an eye open for rookeries, and noticed three (two of them with Lyn on our way to Stratford). 

Everything else was pretty much a case making a judgment about whether to count birds as potential breeders yet or not. It's still very early, but broadly speaking I regard singing birds as likely breeding birds which may need confirming later.

At Arrow Valley Lake a Mute Swan was sitting on a probable nest, while Great Crested Grebes were getting frisky.

Displaying Grebes

Winter was still hanging on to the winter visitors, with plenty of Siskins at Arrow Valley Lake, and 160 Redwings, a few Fieldfares, and three Grey Wagtails at another site.

Siskin

Grey Wagtail

At Arrow Valley Lake two Chiffchaffs were flicking about, refusing to sing, searching for insects. I decided to call them early passage migrants.

It was distinctly chilly all day so it's very much a case of Spring in name only for now.