Ospreys and admirals

Great excitement yesterday morning (Saturday 27th) as all the waterbirds lifted as one - "Osprey" shouted volunteer Wildlife Guide Glyn.  The behaviour of all the other birds suggested an osprey, but he couldn't see one.  Elsewhere on the reserve, however, several visitors watched it drift slowly north.  An osprey had also been seen heading towards the reserve on Friday (26th) - the same one?

This morning (28th), a pair of great crested grebes were displaying to each other, several chiffchaffs were singing and a single black-tailed godwit was on the lagoon at high tide.  Yesterday there were four godwits (there had been 11 earlier in the week) and at least one swallow was seen - after a run of sand martins earlier in the week (last on 24th), they seem to have ground to a halt further south, though a few wheatears have been seen this week.  The first butterfly of the year, a red admiral, fluttered past the coffee shop on Thursday (25th) and bumblebees have been bumbling about daily.  There are only a couple of goldeneyes left from the winter, and all our pochards seem to have cleared off.   Surprise of the week was a male pheasant wandering outside the coffee shop - not a bird we see here very often (much less often than osprey!)