Maybe I’m being too optimistic but all around me I’m beginning to see signs of spring all around me. Yesterday, my birdwatching walk on Swinemoor, brought me yet more spring-like experiences. Although there was still a large congregation of wintering gulls, including around 200 Black-headed Gulls, 150 Common Gulls and 6 Herring Gulls (5 adult, 1 first winter), plenty of birds were in song. Four Skylarks were in full song throughout my circuit of the common and lots of Meadow Pipits were performing their song flight. From a nearby copse of trees several Chaffinches were singing (if you can call it a song) and a single Yellowhammer was “tuning up”.

There were still plenty of Lapwings across the wet grass but rather than standing together in a flock they were dotted around, spaced apart regularly by about 30 metres as if they were establishing territories for nesting. Only a few Golden Plover were present (7 to be exact) but I’m sure more are still turning up to roost.

Other birds of interest were a Grey Heron catching frogs from a ditch and a group of Tree Sparrows bickering in a hawthorn bush.