Love Is In The Air

I got up early and was on the Washes not long after 6.  Barn Owls were much in evidence along the roadsides and I saw 5 between Pymoor and Welney.  The water levels were high and, although there were lots of wildfowl to admire and search through, there were few waders to enjoy.  At Four Balls Farm a smart drake Scaup was busy feeding and there were Pochard in abundance further along at Pymoor 2 hybrid ducks that Brendan had described on Cambirds were still present.  1 at distance looked to be a straight Pochard/Tuftie grey backed and smudgy the other was closer and appears to be a Ring-necked/Tuftie but I guess it's difficult to be precise about lineage with these Aythya's .

A Black Necked Grebe in summer plumage bobbed it's way along the back shore and back towards Four Balls Farm the unmistakeable bugling of Cranes drew my eyes to the horizon and I quickly picked up a first and then a second winging their way East.  

Later in the day I headed to the woods with the family.  At Lynford there were Firecrests vocal and singing as the sun broke through the thinning cloud.  It's a joy to have these beautiful sprytes with stripes close to home, better than any Siberian phyllosc in my book. 

 

A couple of Hawfinch, a Goshawk and Woodlark made up the remains of a great day.  Spring springing all around.  The pond where Mandarin stood on ice just a few weeks ago was, today, heaving with hundreds of frogs, cacophonous in chorus, while a Nuthatch proclaimed territory high above.