A flurry of spring patch gank

Well, the usual suspects have arrived in force... resulting in some much needed, if hardly unexpected year-tickage.

Nothing extraordinary, but the return of regulars like chiffchaff, willow warbler, sedge warbler, blackcap, gropper and whitethroat to the patch, along with the usual hirundines, puts me on 72 for the year or 82.44% in real money.

That's just enough to slingshot me back to the top of the leaderboard... for now. The worrying thing is we're still only in April... and with the exception of one or two sitters (perg and jay still to get, for example) leaves me with precious little to look forward to.

It's going to be a long, long summer!

Spring into spring... er... springness

Not a whole heap of surprises in the weeks since my last update. The usual spring suspects have trickled in... chiffchaffs in March, swallows, sand martins, willow warblers and house martins into April, and a smattering of other things... best of which was two (count em) mute swans on the lake.

Not one of the recent patch swans... one from the archives, because well, you've got to have pretty pictures on these things to keep 'em interesting!

A dearth of swannage can be a real problem on patch. Dipped mute swan last year, which may well have cost me the title (can't remember exactly but think there was only one species in it).

Anyway... the springflux of migrants (see what I did there... #skillz) puts me on 83.07% and, more importantly, back on top of the leaderboard. Nothing unexpected yet though... which  doesn't bode well for the end-of-year tally.

Still... onwards and upwards... allegedly.