After the snow and ice of last week it's been a much milder week. The wind took it's toll on one our bird feeding stations, where the timber 'goal posts' completely collapsed! We hope to fix this next week. The milder conditions have meant for a quieter week for birds as well, with the bramblings seemingly departed and no views of the crossbills that we know of since last Saturday. We did have a good report of a merlin on the new heath on Thursday, and the ravens were displaying over the new heath on Wednesday. Birds have started singing on the warmer, longer days, and Alan and Beth the wardens' saw a red admiral butterfly fluttering around this week!
Following my report of the very rare occurrence here of a female house sparrow at HQ, a male was seen in the same location this week, so maybe signs that we will have a pair or two breeding this year? It would be amazing to have a colony of house sparrows here.
I'll leave you with a few recent images from the reserve by Rob Gilmore and Ray Piercy - have a great weekend.