Spring Birds

We decided to take a trip to our local park today to see if the Sand martins had returned to their nesting holes in the bank of the river. These birds migrate over Winter to Africa but usually return to England in late March/early April to breed. We have observed them flying in to their nesting hole in the river here before but sadly not today. We sat on the bench to eat our snacks for a while but only spotted Magpies in the grass beyond, may be they have not returned yet?

We saw plenty of other birds on the pond - here is the Coot, with its distinctive white patch over its head and beak, which kept ducking right under the water searching for food.

There are lots of canada geese here, which are used to being fed by visitors to the park, so usually turn up to see if there's any food in the offing! One of them started hissing at us and was then chased by a dog who swam into the water after it.

We saw the swans on the island in the middle of the lake. It looked as though they may have a nest there as one bird was sat while the other was busily chasing away any of the other birds that came near. I couldn't get a photo with my phone but here is the island - you may be able to spot 2 white dots in the middle of the picture!

The island is home to one of the largest heronries in England, but I will need to bring a better camera to capture any photos of them! We did spot one today sat in the top of one of the trees - they are amazing - a topic for another day I think!

As we walked round the lake we saw another coot on a nest in the far corner.

The daffodils were in full bloom all round the lake - beautiful.