More spring observations

My observations are not quite so species-rich as Botolph - but they add to the theme of variety and wonder in our local bird populations…

Tuesday 27th Northborough - the old meadows south of the houses in Church Street..

Beautiful mature swallows flying low over the meadows - all steely blue/black
and dark red as they flash by - direct from Africa.

Aerial acrobatics at low level from a buzzard, flying eastwards towards Paradise Lane, being harried by a single crow.

Wednesday 28th - Folly River and the Welland

All winter there have been good numbers of elegant tufted ducks on the Folly River; 2 or 3 weeks ago there were several groups each comprising 5 or 6 males paying close attention to a single female; now the winners hold the stage - three pairs only. Always it seems the female that “breaks” first into flight, calling as they do so, much more subtly than the noisy Mallards.

Standing quietly below the nesting box at the end of the Maxey North Level drain - then hear the scratch of the (female) barn owl as she leaves the box to hunt over a rough pasture.

The first cuckoo - a single male calling in the wood alongside the Welland, between the end of Deeping St James bank and the railway.

A lapwing over the fields to the north of Maxey Cut; the terns are back at the shallows by the Peakirk to Deeping roadbridge.