Another Monday in the Lakeside Hide: While we're waiting for the peregrines to hatch, there's nothing much happening on the cliff. A couple of times a day we see the parent bird fly off the ledge, circle round a few times, maybe rest for a while in a tree and then fly back to the ledge. This happens suddenly, so it's difficult to keep track of both birds and we're never quite sure at long range which parent we are looking at or what the other one is up to meanwhile. All will be clearer when hungry babies have to be fed and we can get them on camera. But today the common sandpipers provided a charming diversion, right in front of the hide. One, the female, as it turned out, was mooching along the shoreline when the other approached and saluted her with one stiff wing raised vertically. They stood and looked at each other for a short time, and then he rose in a little aerial dance, fluttering his wings and dangling his legs and calling excitedly. Then he landed on her back and stood there expectantly for a second until she shuffled sideways to arrange things comfortably and they completed the matrimonial act. Where is that camera when you need it? Crowds of siskins have found our sunflower seed feeder, and some redpolls have been joining them on the ground beneath it. There's a pair of grey wagtails on the stream to our right, and a pair of pied wagtails to our left. This morning the female goosander came over from the other shore of the lake while some fishermen were having their lunch near her box and gave us a wonderful close view as she swam and dived in front of the hide. We had 38 visitors, even on this quietest day of the week, and several of them heard their first cuckoo today. Two were singing all day up on the hillside behind us (cuckoos, not visitors).
Are you a member of the RSPB? Nature is amazing, help us keep it that way. To join contact me on roger.whiteway@rspb.org.uk