Not quite a silent spring

Not a quite a silent spring, but it has been a bloody quiet one! Typical of the last few years, there has been no falls of spring migrants and very little to get excited about it, and it's nearly getting too late for anything now.

I hoped for a finale, a nice rarity to end the spring when I set out at 5.30 this morning to do another territory mapping visit before work......

It has certainly quietened down a lot, most of the birds are getting on with the business of bringing up young. This male reed bunting was one exception!

singing male reed bunting

I did get a year tick this morning, a grasshopper warbler reeled briefly near the Budge screen....and then promptly shut up!

My lumix camera decided to play up this morning, it decided to move between settings on it's own, like it moved from auto to review and then the auto-focus wouldn't work and the shutter button wouldn't press - off course, all this happened whilst a female marsh harrier was hunting in front of me over the Budge fields.

I am fated with camera's, as soon as I get mine ready for action, whatever I want to photograph disappears. The camera seemed OK later, I managed to get a photo of this lapwing outside the Oddie hide.

lapwing

A new species for the 'Douglas Island' list - mute swan

mute swans on Douglas Island

Walking back through the dunes, they were quiet too, but this fine display of cowslips made up for the lack of birds....nearly

cowslips

stubble field

The farmers at High Chibburn Farm have left this stubble field over winter and haven't cultivated it yet, amazingly it has more lapwing pairs than the reserve designed for breeding lowland waders! It just goes to show, all you need is a bit of uncultivated land, free from deep vegetation and within a short distance of water and bingo! Breeding waders. I hear that the Druridge Bay Partnership (aka NWT) have managed to get stage 1 funding for an HLF project that could bring upwards of a million pounds to manage the Bay. Hopefully some of it can go to leaving some stubble fields with marshy corners!

121 grasshopper warbler