quick update

The last four days has seen a couple more visits to KGV with Jim and I've carried out two RSPB volunteer farm surveys too.

The KGV walks produced more Wheatear and our first Sedge Warbler on the patch this season. We missed a Great Egret whilst there that three of the other four birders there all saw. We heard Kingfisher again so I'm sure we'll actually get to see one at some point soon. On 7th Neville called to say he'd found a Red-legged Partridge so we joined him from the other side of the reservoir to patch tick that. No Terns yet but they can't be far away, any day now.

The farm surveys have been something new for me and I've enjoyed doing them. The Essex farm is run as a working crop farm so birds are hard to find but it holds a decent number of Skylark. Apart from that the birds are mostly woodland birds as it has a few small wooded areas and is skirted by woodland.

On the way home from the survey I stopped at Abberton and scoped the three Spoonbill nests from Layer Breton. A Cuckoo called for another year tick before I headed round to the old road where I quickly ticked Nightingale with a brief view but longer spells of singing. At the farm I found 21 Yellow Wagtails for another year tick

The Herts site is managed for wildlife and holds larger numbers of Skylark along with good numbers of Linnet and Yellowhammer among other things. Today I saw my first Whitethroats of the year on the survey with nine singing males on my circuit. The farm holds a pair of Little Owl and two pairs of Barn Owl but I've yet to see evidence of that, maybe on my next visit in May.

The year list is now 179

A few pictures from my travels this last few days