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A Mistle Thush has been feeding on of the grass around our house for the last few days - the first time we've seen one from the house. The Mallards have stopped visiting the patch of grass outside our garden, instead choosing to fly in and land in our garden for food and a quick nap. Soon they'll be knocking on our door!

Mistle Thrush

Mistle Thrush

Mistle Thrush

Mallards

Mallards

Purwell Ninesprings

A cuckoo calling and briefly seen in flight was the highlight this evening at our local reserve. There were also at least five Reed Warblers, two Reed Buntings, a calling Sedge Warbler and a female Blackcap. I also saw a Common Darter, Red Kite, Buzzard, Swallow and two Swifts whilst lying in the garden revising this afternoon.

Reed Warbler

Cliveden National Trust

We had a fantastic walk in the heat and blue skies today. A large part of the walk was along a steep path adjacent to the Thames. We saw a Ring-necked Parakeet, a Red Kite and heard a young Great-Spotted Woodpecker calling to an adult. We also saw our first Green-Veined White Butterfly of the year. There were at least eight Red Kites and a few Buzzards on the way home.

Green-Veined White Butterfly

Mallards

Mallards

Purwell Ninesprings

A lovely evening walk around the reserve this evening produced 30 species of bird including three or four Reed Warblers (my first good views this year), a male Bullfinch feeding on a playing field amongst other finches, plenty of Swallows and Swifts, a possible Whitethroat and a Reed Bunting and Blackcap.

Reed Warbler

Jay in the garden

River Hiz - Grey Wagtails

We've seen two adult Grey Wagtails on a number of occasions lately flying up to a nest on the edge of a building on Portmill Lane. We went this morning and the young had fledged! I stood photographing an adult bringing flies back and forth to one young wagtail for about 45 minutes.

Juvenile

Juvenile

Juvenile

Adult

Baby Long-Tailed Tits

We've now seen baby Starlings, Great Tits, Dunnocks and now Long-Tailed Tits in the garden. There were at least 5 young Long-Tailed Tits this morning.

Juvenile Long-Tailed Tit

Baby Starlings

Oughtonhead Common

Today was probably the warmest day for a couple of months. The butterflies stole the show once again on this RSPB local group walk - a few Holly Blues, Speckled Woods, a Comma and lots of Small White, Brimstones and Orange Tips. The best bird was a Spotted Flycatcher, but I failed to see it because I was trying to photograph a Lesser Whitethroat (which was very skilled at flying of it's perch less than half a second before I pushed my finger down). There were also lots of Sedge Warblers, Whitethroats, Blackcaps and a single male Bullfinch. We also had a great display of House Martins, Swallows and Swifts swooping low over a large puddle in front of us.

Small White

Female Brimstone laying eggs

Comma

Sedge Warbler

Whitethroat

Whitethroat

Purwell Ninesprings: Spring has sprung

Butterflies galore! We saw five species of butterfly (Holly Blue, Small Tortoiseshell, Brimstone, Orange-Tip and Small White) at home and on the circular walk today - three of which were the first for this year. The best was a Holly Blue - my first ever! Another bonus was a Water Vole which my Dad saw briefly swim across the channel from the boardwalk. We had always known that Water Voles were resident at Purwell Ninesprings, but that was our (my Dad's) first one today. There were also two Sedge Warblers singing and showing well from the boardwalk.

Holly Blue

Holly Blue

Holly Blue

Holly Blue

Orange Tip

Rapeseed

Rapeseed

Sedge Warbler

Swallow (a pretty impressive achievement to fly over from Africa with just one tail streamer!)

Baby Great Tit

The good news is that this is the first baby bird that I've seen this year. The bad news is that this baby Great Tit let me get within a couple of metres of it and has stayed frozen to the same spot since I saw it about half an hour ago. It is starting to twitch it's head occasionally but I feel it needs to start moving soon or else it's chances for survival are pretty slim.

Juvenile Great Tit














I missed it! The bird is no longer on the branch - it must have flown off.

Swifts, Swallows & House Martins

At least 10 House Martins flew north a few nights ago. There were also a few Swallows flying around my school field yesterday along with up to 20 Swifts. I also saw a Swift flying low over from my house this morning.

Knebworth Park

Highlights: Nuthatch, Lapwing, Mistle Thrush, Skylark, Green Woodpecker, Chiffchaff (heard), Buzzard.

Mallards

Lapwing

Nuthatch

Nuthatch

Bluebells

Bluebells

Bluebells

Paxton Pits

Highlights: Black-winged Stilt (first ever in the UK), Lesser Whitethroat (first ever), Common Sandpiper, Garden Warbler, Nightingale, Whitethroat, Willow Warbler, Cuckoo, Bar-Tailed Godwit, Greenshank, Grey Plover, Lesser Black-Backed Gull, Blackcap, Common Tern, Linnet, Redshank, Swift.

Chiffchaff

Chiffchaff

Black-winged Stilt (far left)
Bar-Tailed Godwit (middle, front)
Greenshank (two, right)