The last few days have felt like a waiting game. I've been birding each day, often with a plan in mind, but have seen little to inspire.
On Thursday, with the weather still distinctly chilly, I sky-watched from the causeway at Earlswood for a couple of hours. I was hoping to get lucky with a fly-over Osprey, but as usual I had bought the wrong lottery ticket. Instead I saw nine Sand Martins two Swallows, Sparrowhawk, Red Kite, and three Buzzards.
The plan wasn't entirely stupid because this is exactly the time of year the Scottish birds are returning from Africa, and indeed one had flown over Blackwell Golf Course at the edge of my Circle the day before, and another over the Birders Store in Worcester on the day of my vigil. I have a lousy record with Ospreys; 29 in forty-five years but only about five were not twitched, and four of those were in autumn.
On Friday morning I paid an early morning visit to Mappleborough Green, but it was pretty dire. Even the Little Ringed Plovers seemed to have gone.
This morning my moth trap contained just five moths, three of which were Brindled Beautys, so at least new for the year.
With the mothing over so quickly, I had time for a dash to Spernal STW to join Tony and his team who were ringing there. Cetti's Warblers seemed to be singing everywhere, and I even saw one of them in the field. Tony reckons there are six or seven on site.
I'd been hoping for a Willow Warbler or something like that, but the only migrants were a couple of Swallows, Chiffchaffs, and Blackcaps. Less regularly seen birds included a Kingfisher, and a pair of Shelducks.
The weather is predicted to warm up over the next few days, so things can only get better.
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