We are still waiting for the first spring migrant to be seen on the reserve! Normally the first chiffchaffs arrive by mid- March and we may have seen a sand martin, swallow or wheatear by now, but this year everything is very late.
I've recently returned from a birding trip to Morocco, and even there it was noted that the nightingales hadn't arrived and there was no obvious movement of raptors or passerines on their way back north. The winds and cold weather systems seem to be the cause of this and are holding the migrants back, so when these systems change we should find a big surge of birds arriving on our shores!
In the meantime, we are still enjoying the flock of around 20 bramblings around the feeders, some of the males almost in full summer plumage now!
Brambling image; Ray Piercy