After the long, gloomy wet and cold spring, suddenly we have turned the corner and today it's shirt-sleeves, ice creams, butterflies, bluebells and cuckoos! The first orange-tip butterfly was on the wing, a cuckoo has been calling along the Sandy Ridge trail, and recently arrived blackcaps, willow warblers and chiffchaffs are all belting out their songs. A POSSIBLE, lesser- spotted woodpecker was heard drumming by a member of staff at HQ this afternoon, in the spot the bird favoured when they were last hear a couple of years ago, at the bottom of the Sandy Ridge trail.
A few bramblings still remain, but the flock has gone from over 50 to around 5, so these lovely birds have departed to their breeding grounds again.
Here's an image of a bluebell just blooming, taken today by warden Beth Aucott.