Good Friday

It was good to be off work and it was good to be out and about in the warming Springness of things.  Welney was packed with families and kids, including ours, doing Easter duck hunts, pond dipping and the like.  The water levels are high on the washes and on Lady Fen the conditions look great for waders.  Everywhere I looked Buzzards were up and wheeling around, a small kettle of 5 drifted North in a thermal.  A pair of Pied Wagtail appeared to be on territory around the observatory but I was unable to find a White Wagtail on it's way to Iceland out on the Fen, neither could I turn any of the assembled Pipits into anything of note. 

 

 

Back into Cambridgeshire at Four Balls Farm Brendan stopped to let me know he'd found a Spoonbill earlier in the day, to the North.  Although I checked through the assembled masses of wildfowl my mind was on the sky and thoughts of Osprey storming North to reach breeding grounds.  An impressive congregation of Whooper Swans straddling the flood created a pleasant diversion and a lone White-fronted Goose was with the flock on the adjacent fields. 

 

 

 

At the Settling Beds back in Ely the Marsh Harriers were high on hormones.  7 birds were scrapping, dancing and whistling their way across the skies.  At one point there were 3 Skydances concurrently above us.  It's all starting to happen.........