The past few weeks' cold and windy weather has not motivated me to go out birdwatching although I have enjoyed watching what birds have been visiting my garden feeders. There have been more greenfinches and chaffinches than usual plus I have had up to 3 blackcaps (2 f, 1 m) which have been visiting daily since the end of January. Initially a female showed up on the day of the Big Garden birdwatch, then a few days later I spotted a male. In the last week, a second female arrived, Interestingly the second female appears to have a slightly paler chestnut cap. I rarely have blackcaps in my garden so it has been a treat to watch them though I suppose they will move on quickly when the weather gets warmer.
Today I went out to Whelford Pools to sit in the hide there and hopefully practise using my camera using some tips which I'd learnt from a camera workshop which I attended earlier in the week. There was very little there to start with - all the feeders were empty, so I scattered some seed on a couple of logs in front of the hide watched the tits and robins arrive to take advantage of the food. On the lake, birds seen included shovelers, great crested grebes, gulls and a few goosanders. Then I noticed some small birds flying fast above the water in a flock and after studying them through binoculars I came to the conclusion they must be newly arrived sand martins.
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