29th April

A cracking male Whinchat was at Wyke in the morning on the hill at the end of the cart-track (I’ve only ever seen one here before, sometime prior to 2005 – again a male in April in almost the exact same place!).   I then arrived at a sunny, windy and showery Grafham Water at midday where the highlights included my first 26+ Swifts of the year over the reservoir with good numbers of hirundines, especially House Martins and 2 Whimbrel showing well on the dam.

                Other birds included a Cuckoo over the lagoons, a Red Kite, a White Wagtail and 2 Yellow Wagtails on the dam, 2 Avocets, a Dunlin also on the dam and the usual spread of warblers round the lagoons including Whitethroat, Lesser Whitethroat, Reed Warbler and Garden Warbler.

 

Great to hear the Swifts screaming again!

In these two pictures you can clearly see the contrast between the brownish flight feathers and coverts and the black body feathers indicating that these are 1st year birds (hatched last year) as they do not moult the wing feathers in their first year and will still have the same feathers that they left the nest with (no wonder they appear a bit brown and faded after a long winter under the African sun!) whereas adults do an almost complete moult in their winter quarters so would arrive back with a more uniform appearence

More Swifts

Whimbrel

Yellow Wagtail

Funky white Pheasant