Its already May, I don't have a clue where the time has gone. And as usual my blog-posting has taken a back seat, although the weather and birding have been that atrocious that I probably should have been able to find the time to do it.
Anyway - March!
Species 94
Additions - Black-necked Grebe, Yellowhammer, Skylark, Chiffchaff, Cattle Egret, Sand Martin, Siskin, Little Grebe, Dunlin, Little Ringed Plover, Barnacle Goose, Red kite, blackcap, knot, Grey Plover
March is usually reasonably quiet, apart from the first few early migrants turning up, but again, i was pleasantly surprised by how productive it was. The month started well with a Black-necked grebe appearing on the A52 pit, which I picked up after it had been there a few days. The first migrants arrived with a singing chiffchaff on the 11th, when I got the first yellowhammer of the year too.
I was away in York on the weekend of the 17th-19th, but a text on the way home on the friday night had me rushing to the patch before it got dark to lay eyes on the Cattle Egret that had decided to drop in. I got pretty crap views but it was brilliant nonetheless, my first in the UK and a cracking bird for the patch. I'd got my first Sand Martins of the year that morning too, i wonder if I'd missed the Egret that morning? I managed to get back to the patch on the sunday evening and got much better views of the bird, and finally added Little Grebe to the patch list too, as well as LRP and Dunlin.
A group of 6 Barnacle geese one evening were a nice addition, likely to be feral birds but good to see, and a distant Red Kite was a welcome addition too. The final birds of the month were seen on a glorious saturday morning, which began very foggy but ended up being very warm, The first singing blackcap was seen early on, and later a Knot was seen (found the night before) and a Grey Plover which was very elusive and only really seen in very poor light.
