Spring seems sprung

What a difference a bit of warm weather makes. On Saturday we like the rest of the UK felt the benefit of the large areas of high pressure that has moved across the country. Things look even better a few days later with the system looking stalled over the entire country every one is experiencing a rush of spring carried on the welcome warm air.
It was much like this for me on Saturday, I didn’t have the opportunity to get out birding tho , my days efforts were to be spent in the garden constructing a rabbit hutch with my ex brother in law. Its amazing what a small hike in temperature makes. The ground beneath the feet was still frozen hard yet soon started to thaw…well at least the top centimetre. More encouraging was the first wren singing. The wrens had been a bit of a concern with the prolonged cold weather but there had been a female skulking about the shrubs for a few days. This welcome return has now been joined by a rather vociferous male who is singing from all the high perches around the houses. I still haven’t seen that many out and about but it looks good for round about at the moment.
The wren wasn’t to be alone though and with in minutes of him singing our first skylark of the year was singing above the house. The delight felt in hearing the song was doubled almost immediately with another bird sparking up before the firsts song cycle had finished. The spring chorus wasn’t going to stop there either and down the fields there was a rich strong sound of birds feeling the spring, several curlew were bubbling away and rising into the air in display. Oystercatchers were also displaying with their heads down and stomping around the sound of their piping calls carried beautifully across the warm open spaces to us.
For so long the dominant bird sound has been the squabbley sounds of greylag geese that the cacophony of spring sounds seemed overwhelming …not to mention very welcome……..birds are returning and its all about to kick off again…magic.