Eight crested grebes.

A certain sign that spring is in the offing is the return of great crested grebes to the lake, having spent the deepest winter as coast dwellers. A quick stroll around Buddleia in this evening's dying light revealed no fewer than eight individuals - each bedecked in their striking summer finery. The area just North of the viewing shelter harboured six birds, including two bonding pairs going through the dress rehearsals to their elaborate, balletic courtship ritual. In both cases the courting couples were disrupted by the two unattended birds trying to muscle in, but each time prompting an aggressive shooing away. I would guess that the 'hangers on' were rival males competing for the attention of the females although, naturally, my knowledge on such matters is fairly limited...

A prospect to savour - two grebe chicks and two doting parents. Photo Sean Tanner 2011

Yesterday Chris was fortunate enough to see our first pukka migrant in the tiny sleek shape of a sand martin which whizzed passed the hide and over the two wind-buffeted ibises. Let’s hope that it finds ample invert fodder to sustain it until the winter is truly consigned to memory, (the presence of largish flocks of redwing on Arne today indicate that it is still very much 'shoulder season' from the migratory birds perspective). Let’s hope too, that the wall that bears the sand martin's name finally lives up to its billing this spring. Martins displayed over the wall and repeatedly entered it on several successive days last year but, alas, the anticipated breeding never materialised.

The first sand martin of last year. Luke Phillips.

Kingfishers however, are very definitely back in residence and have been a reliable and always watchable presence in the wall's vicinity for a fortnight now – with luck they may replicate last summer's multiple breeding successes! 

This 2011 shot of the kingfishers exactly reflects what and where their activity is focused 12 months hence. Photo Allan Neilson.