Some Spring migrants

The warm sunny weather was far too attractive to spend all day indoors working on my dissertation so a quick walk around Swinemoor was in order. Good levels of water still there and no horses yet to trample the grass and disturb the birds.

Singing Skylarks and Meadow Pipits, along with the sun, made it feel more like summer than anything else. Fairly soon after my arrival I heard my first Willow Warbler of the year. I managed to track it down into a hawthorn bush when a passing dog-walker flushed it.

A quick look at the wet areas revealed 2 Shelduck which I assume will probably spend the rest of the spring there as they usually do.

Also on the wet areas were 3 Redshank, 8 Golden Plover, 13 Snipe, around 30 Lapwings and the star of the show - a first summer male Ruff. At least 3 Lapwings seemed to be sitting on eggs as they remained seated even when I got within about 20 metres. Also a pair of Snipe appeared to be nest building.

Other interesting birds included 3 Dunnocks involved in some sort of threesome activity, a Kingfisher, a Moorhen on a nest, a male Reed Bunting with nest material and a Pied Wagtail.

Interesting to note that today there were lots of people and dogs on Swinemoor, but they all stuck to the paths, staying off of the wet areas that the birds love. This suggests that it is the horses that arrive on Swinemoor around mid to late April that cause most of the Lapwings to desert their nests and not humans.