I had my first proper look out of the new Tern Hide when I arrived to open up this morning and was greeted by something between 600 and 1000 sand martin swooping over the water, the first serious arrival of hirundines this spring. I saw only one swallow though and no sign of any house martin.
Along the shore in front of the hide there was a pair of little ringed plover and a fine male lapwing.
male lapwing from Tern Hide
There were several ducks feeding close in too.
drake gadwall, not just a dull, grey duck as some would have you believe
shoveler pair
tufted duck pair
I spent a good part of the day trying to complete the annual report, which kept me in the office on a day when outside would have been far preferable. However I did have an excuse to get out for a while and enjoy the sunshine as we had a visit from a small group of top entomologists to look particularly at solitary bees, of which we saw many species including a few new reserve records. Incidentally we also saw several orange-tip, including one female, speckled wood and peacock.
Locking up the weather was still sunny and at the Woodland Hide finches were still feeding, including a good number of brambling.
male brambling
There were also several reed bunting, almost all males.
male reed bunting
Lovely show ;-). Id be interested to hear more about the Entymologist’s findings as Ive joined groups to do with Bees, Hoverflies, Conopids etc. They make for fascinating photographic subjects (the insects…not the entymologists…or, well, you never know…