Late April - its all happening out there!

Visits to our local sites over the last three days have certainly shown that spring is very much in full swing. The regular nightingale survey at Castor Hanglands on Friday morning turned up 16 singing males, which is a good number so early in the season and compares well with previous years. Blackcap and willow warbler were singing loudly in good numbers too. Saturday morning on the Maxey Cut and Etton Maxey reserve produced my first cuckoo of the year and there was a male and female wheatear near the Helpston Road. On the reserve our four pairs of lapwing are still there, with three seemingly sitting on eggs and the other pair backwards and forwards between central and north meadow. Two redshank and 3 little ringed plover are also on site, and we now have upto 12 common tern sitting on the mud, hopefully ready to take up residence on the three tern rafts. Sunday evening on the reserve also produced a male marsh harrier - Bob Titman had seen this earlier in the day too - and there was a nice group of 7 snipe flying overhead too. Again a female wheatear on island meadow. I haven't seen many buttterflies yet - a couple of small tortoishell and one small white over the weekend. Further afield, the ospreys are much in evidence at Rutland Water and I found my first house martins of the year there too.