First Wheatears at last... spring is sprung

where have all the birds gone...?

Bugger all on patch

And still no sign of a migrating snowy owl.

(not so) happy days

Bushveld

Been a bit mute of late

Boghall has seen a lot of snow in recent weeks. However, this has failed to translate into many birds except 2 woodcock a couple of weeks back. Subsequent birding trips have found mallards trying to break the ice to find somewhere to breed. And the second ever record of mute swan for the patch. These were fly overs, rather than flying over from a distance. A few stock doves brings us to 77%. Now looking forward to the first chiffchaffs in 7 days time.

Still no sign of the golden mallard on the patch though. Come on, stop being anasaly retentive.

bit of movement through the crease

High excitement here as we've had large volumes of snow over the last few days. This together with large volumes of winter thrushes and waders everywhere, desperately feeding on every scrap of open ground.

View from the magic patio

Over the course of the snow-filled 5 days, I managed to score fieldfare (just a few...), bar-tailed godwit, redpoll, wigeon, merlin, and best of all a fantastic jack snipe, which was only my 2nd ever on patch after one in April 2005 or something. All good!

Snowy scenes at Shite Lane

"Shite lane hill remains impassable..."