At last... a change in the weather

This weekend brought a change in the weather,  something more resembling the spring-like conditions we should be expecting. That-said there were some vicious hail storms coming through until this evening.

Leading up until Sunday, conditions were decidedly wintery and not conducive to birding or I am sure, for our newly arrived migrants, a bit of a shock!

Snow storm approaching

The conditions, alongside an important football match to attend meant little time for birding the patch, although the Bank Holiday Monday gave me an opportunity today. The two visits that I did manage brought a little flurry of species that were new for the year. Yesterday I saw fulmar, sandwich tern, ringed plover and grasshopper warbler (one reeling by the path to the hides last night) and today brought whimbrel (several flying over and eight coming in to land ahead of a hail storm), goosander and whitethroat.

There was a pair of red-breasted merganser on the big pool. Sadly the goosander was distant and in direct sunshine.

Red-breasted merganser pair

Drake red-breasted merganser having a stretch

This white wagtail was on the Budge fields - apologies for the heavily cropped pic.

White wagtail  - apologies for the heavily cropped pic

Finally, we had interesting news of a ringing recovery this week. A first-winter male siskin that we caught at Druridge on 16th November 2014, our last ringing session of that year, was caught by ringers in Warsop in Nottinghamshire on April 9th. A distance of 228 kilometres.

My year list now stands at 116 species.