The Village Patch....17th,18th & 22nd April 2020.

More great visits to the village patch and surrounding area provided more superb sightings,the following is what i recorded.

17th April

Plenty of migrant birds are now arriving in the area and 1 new species was recorded today which was new for the year,a Greenshank.The bird overflew the site not landing unfortunately,but was a decent spring record all the same.
 Plenty of displaying and courtship is still on going with the Waders on site and hopefully they will soon settle and begin to nest.

18th April

An evening visit today in some lovely sunshine was rewarded with the first decent gathering of Hirundines so far this spring at Kettleby,with my first House Martins of the year(10),20 Swallow and at least 37 Sand Martin making for some lovely viewing and a real joy to watch.
 On a recently ploughed field adjacent to the quarries,the sight of 12 Pied,9 Yellow and a single White Wagtail was really great to see.The Yellow Wags were great to see in the evening sun,looking like little glowing beacons,just stunning.The White Wagtail is the first I have seen this spring and was a welcome sighting of this north bound relation to our resident Pied Wagtail.

22nd April

Another cracking visit this morning,with another 'New' species added to the village patch list,a Grey Plover.The bird was seen flying over the quarry calling,but i could not relocate it on the ground unfortunately,but what a superb record for here.
 Other new species recorded for the year,where 2 Lesser Whitethroat,a very active Common Sandpiper and 2 lovely female Wheatear.
 Four Fieldfare were still feeding on the horse paddocks on the hillside above Kettleby,but all the Ring Ouzels have moved on now.

More excellent visits to my little local area and i look forward to getting out and visiting again soon.

The Crossroads Heading Into Barnetby At Church Hill.

Hoverfly sp. Epistrophe elegans.