Passage Bramblings arrive

Hoping for more Bramblings in the coming days, this picture will have to do for now.

The long standing North Easterly wind has gone (at last), and at times even the sun can be observed. As it's April it's a good time for a visiting Brambling, and sure enough the seed feeder had a solitary plucky bird finishing off the last of the sunflower seed this morning. It was joined by a second bird later in the day.

A quick walk down Blindgrooms Lane, Shadoxhurst, and there were still plenty of winter birds around. These included 2 Woodcock and 100+ Redwing, and just a small party of Meadow Pipits overhead. A Skylark was singing over the open fields, a small patch of Ladies Smock is now in flower and a couple of oversized Bumble Bees were on the wing. Sadly, no sign of Lesser Spotted woodpecker and no Chiffchaffs either, but lets see how things change when the weather improves over the weekend. Still many Chaffinches, Siskins and Redpolls are around the garden.