Sunday 10th. April 2011

I went out this morning with four things to do . The first to get rid of some rubbish at the local tip , which I brought back home as it was bedlam , with cars blocking the road both ways and tempers fraying . I did a u turn while I could and headed to the cemetery to visit my Dad's grave , he would have been 100 today , happy birthday Pops . The third was a quick visit to the Country Park alongside . I just caught the two Kestrels as they left their nest box , so I headed for the lake . Once again this year , a pair of Great Crested Grebe are nesting , and whilst one fastidiously collected nesting materials , the other one , pictured , was more interested in diving for his breakfast . I can't imagine which one was which . A friendly Canada Goose came over to see if I had brought his . Best part of the visit was on the far side of the lake , when the constant chattering of a Reed Warbler caught my attention . I waited for some time for him to show well , but he didn't , and this was the best I could do .The local recorder came along whilst I was there and said that it had must have arrived since yesterday morning and was the first for the site too . Whilst waiting though , my first Common Whitethroat , landed , sang it's scratchy song , and flew off again . The fourth thing was to get up to Burnt Gorse at High Elms to see if either Dingy or Grizzled Skipper had emerged and also to see if the Green Hairstreaks were about , after last week's find . I dipped out on all three species , but did record my first Green-veined White of the year ,

and very soon afterwards , my first Speckled Wood , looking very fresh . Most of the trees have burst bud now , one of the last few being the Beech , encouraged by the fine weather . The Wych Elm is still leafless , but is sporting it's seed pods , looking very similar to those of Honesty , and , for once , 'down South' is in time with 'up North' with the Bird Cherry/Prunus padus , being at about the same stage as that posted by Dean/DDD recently . 7+ Orange Tips , including 3 females were recorded , along with a single Comma , 2 Brimstone and 3 Peacock , one of which pictured . Back home for lunch out on the patio , one of the local Blue tits was rattled by the fact that we were sitting quite close to the feeders , Whilst the male Chaffinch wasn't bothered when he came in for a drink . And finally , a raptor very high overhead that I had put down as a Sparrowhawk , showed very light wingtips when I blew the shot up .