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.

A steady(ish) trickle of migs

So the massive influx of hoopoe to Ireland's south coast managed to skirt around the edges of my little patch, with nary an exotic interloper to be found anywhere within the patch boundary (no change there then).

Exotic surprises notwithstanding, the steady arrival of usual suspects like blackcap, sedge warbler, whitethroat and (finally) house martin, augmented by the occasional resident like a calling long-eared owl from the garden a few nights back (outdoor nocturnal teeth-brushing still paying dividends)... march me onwards to a respectable 87.06%.

No gropper yet though... which is a bit of a worry.