Spring is in the air....?

Whilst out and about over recent days doing timed-tetrads, numbers of some common species appear to be high - good numbers of robins, blackbirds, dunnocks, blue tits and chaffinches, for example, in pretty well all tetrads visited. Between Annie and myself this included 6 TTVs and several additional ones for roving records. Numbers of these particular species were much higher than during the first visits before Christmas. Of course many birds were easier to find because males of a number of species (robins especially) were in full song. Numbers of wrens were much lower though and almost no goldcrests seen at all.

Still plenty of redwings about (hundreds around Manorbier-Manorbier Newton on Sunday). Also flocks of lapwing in the same area (2-300) but only a handful of golden plovers in this area.

I have to say that in my experience of tetrad bashing on the coast stonechats have been decidedly scarce or entirely absent since the New Year - they have probably fled west and south during the cold snap. It will be interesting to see how many turn up in March when breeding should be underway. Spring must be on the way though, two pairs of ravens have more or less lined two nests on the south coast and are ready to breed. Watched a pair of long-tailed tits nest-building today, they don't seem to mind the cold weather - roosting in such a well insulated nest (this one in dense gorse)and feeding down inside dense scrub.

At Bosherston lakes we still have around 30 gadwall present in a mixed coot, wigeon, tufted duck etc flock of about 160 birds; 15 goosanders were also noted today.