could it be summer?

Three things make me think it might be summer.

1) I saw my first swallows at Druridge today
2) Racing pigeons - loads of them passing through
3) Some mental bloke was swimming in the sea

All signs of summer in my book, all that was missing was some charvas in a clapped out corsa burning fenceposts and swigging from 3ltr bottles of super-strength cider.

I managed five year ticks at Druridge this afternoon, not bad going if I say so myself. It got me over the disappointment of seeing a snow bunting less than 200m from the patch boundary :-(.

I hadn't even stopped the car when a swallow came over, not the earliest swallow I've seen but certainly close and a full eight days earlier than 2010. A chiffchaff was singing in the bushes. AG had tipped me off about a pochard on the Budge fields, right enough it was there. I was looking for garganey, I was sure I would get one today, sadly not. There were three pintail still on the Budge fields, a pair and female and 18 shoveler with lots of displaying, making eight species of duck on the pools (also three species offshore).

Little grebe - this fella was trilling like crazy!

A pair of sparrowhawks were chasing each other, even talon grappling at one stage, near the Budge screen, good sign they'll be breeding at Druridge this year.

Offshore I picked up my first sandwich tern of the year, flying north, just the one though. There were a few sand martins over the dunes and two more swallows, feeding in front of the dunes - an invasion!

So, still no wheatear or puffin on the list yet, but the year list now stands at respectable 92. I plan to a territory mapping visit tomorrow so hopefully I'll add a few more species?

88 swallow
89 chiffchaff
90 kestrel
91 pochard
92 sandwich tern