Migrants ! thousands of em !

Wow !

What a day on the patch .....

But first a mention of the two GADWALL that were happily swimming around the Flood Plain @ 05:40 yesterday (30th April) (YT-71)

Spent a few visits this am on visiting the Flood ! but other then a pair of Canada and 6 Mallard , not much happening , the water had receeded by about 3 feet , but still covered a lot of the hollow.

@ 3pm i went to pick the kids up from school and decided to stop at the Abbey Paddocks , after scanning the field a few times i had almost given up when a bit of buff jumped out from behind a horse turd , it looked good through the bins , got the scope on it and confirmed  it was a Male WHINCHAT (YT-72) - Great looking bird , it looked as though it was calling a lot and kept looking skywards , not one i was expecting at all this year ! Still need a bloody Wheatear though !

Whinchat Baby ! With attendant Horse Poo

Wondering where the hell it is !

I then saw a Single BARN SWALLOW cross the road as I headed away.

At 17:35 a chance phone call to Rob meant that i was outside in the Garden , while chatting away about Migrants and stuff , i happened to look up , Common Tern , i nearly shouted , but then it banked about 40 feet in the air and a second one joined  , showing grey body gleaming white tail streamers and wings ! I struggled to find bins while on phone to Rob and the birds headed off south ! ARCTIC TERN tastic ! (YT-73)

While getting over the shock , 5 BARN SWALLOWS flew over northeast , closely followed by 4 SWIFTS !! (YT-74)

A further 8 BARN SWALLOWS were seen as I drove to pick up Jessica again !

Wish i had the time to check the patch properly today ......