Drip feed of year ticks and the spotted flycatchers are home

See what happens... you don't stop by the blog for a while and suddenly people are overtaking you left, right and centre.

I'd dropped to third in the rankings... FFS!

Still... that was soon remedied when I totted up the recent trickle of year ticks, including a small flock of whimbrel (16 of 'em) feeding in a field near the lake.

Whimbrel on patch... lovely!

Most of the usual spring suspects are now on the list, including whitethroat, sedge warbler and gropper (which I missed last year... so good to get). My spotted flys arrived back last week, and a jay from the car today was the latest addition... taking me up to 81 species, or 93.46% and back into the lead.

Long way to December though, and with swift the only semi-cert I can think of that I have left, it's going to be a long seven months!