In April 2021 we were finally allowed to do a few things again after the long lockdown, and my first trip back out as a roving birdwatcher was to Langford Lakes a few miles down the road. That was where I saw my first swallow of 2021, a single bird, and as it always does the sight filled me with joy. There are spring migrants that appear in March but they are all birds I would be unlikely to see at my local patch, like sand martin and little ringed plover, so April was when I started to see real migration happening. Still, the first swallow of spring will always be special, and every birdwatcher looks out for it and notes is carefully; mine was on April 17th in 2021. The visit to Langford Lakes also gave me my first sedge warbler of the year, a male tuning up his song in a bush and then suddenly bursting out onto the wing, as if he was so overjoyed to be back that he couldn't sit still. And it was a lovely sunny day so I also got to see that lovely harbinger of spring, the first orange tip butterfly. Butterflies you see earlier in the year on sunny winter days, peacocks and red admirals, are briefly waking from hibernation, but the orange tip is one of the first butterflies out of the egg in the spring.
Back on my patch, while the spring warblers arrived gradually throughout the month to fill the thickets and reedbeds, some more unexpected visitors dropped by. April can be a good month for this but I'd never really noticed it as much on a local patch as I did in 2021. One visit I saw a common sandpiper sitting on one of the logs in the river- these are birds that love the waterside but you'd normally expect them by a lake or an estuary. These cute little wading birds bob up and down constantly, and I could see it catching little insects off the water in its beak. It was gone the next day, clearly on its way to a breeding site. I also had a bit of a surprise visit from a white goose that joined the Canada goose flock one day, the first time I'd seen one in that flock. I expect it was what is normally known as a 'farmyard' goose even though it was probably born in the wild and didn't belong to anyone, but an ancestor somewhere down the line will have escaped from somewhere!
Best of all, mid-month when I was walking the footpath in a shower of rain, with an urgent sounding call two small ducks flew past me. Luckily I got a good clear view of the male, who had a bright white stripe across his otherwise dark head making him unmistakeable. They were garganey, one of our smallest ducks and one of the only ones to migrate to the UK for the summer rather than the winter. In spring you often see them in pairs like this, as if they are already ready to breed, but they are very scarce breeders in the UK and most birds you will see are probably passing through on their way to another country to nest. I'm sure that's what 'my' pair did. I found them again later that visit, accidentally flushing them off a quiet little pond where they had been sheltering as I went up to it, I hadn't noticed they were there and felt so bad about bothering them! They were gone a couple of days later when I looked for them again, no doubt in a hurry to get to nesting. Birds rarely hang around on their spring migrations. This was a very special visit and unlikely to be ever repeated, but I'm delighted to add them to my patch list and to see what I think is only my 4th(?) ever garganey my whole life. I'm just lucky I was there when they were!
The breeding season kicks up a gear in April for all the birds that were here all winter, and there was plenty of nest activity going on, much easier to see while the leaves are still thin on the trees. Every spring it feels like I watch carrion crows nest building (or as is more normal for them patching up an old nest), and spending lots of time on and around it as a pair, and then one of the birds can be seen sitting on the nest...but then the leaves grow too thick and I lose track of them! Once fledged the babies look just the same as the adults too. There's a row of old crow's nests in the trees along my footpath and I always wonder which one they will choose, and love seeing them working diligently to build up their chosen nest. In 2021 there was even a pair that took over a large, flat nest at the top of a tall tree, I wouldn't be surprised if it was an old buzzard nest. But the same thing happened with them as well, I lost track of what was going on and have no idea if their breeding attempt succeeded or failed. I doubt anything will be different this year, but I live in hope!
Much easier to keep track of are the rooks. The rookery is right down at the other end of my patch so I don't go there that often, but when I do it's always interesting to see how the dozen or so nests are getting on. On the 11th of April was when I first heard the high pitched squawks coming from the nests, easily heard among the deeper sounds of their parents- at least one nest had babies, and soon the rest would surely follow.
At least one pair of blackbirds at my patch had mouths to feed by mid-month, as I saw one picking up food to take back to the nest on the 16th. (Blackbirds can get a lot earlier than this of course- in the very mild winter-early spring period we are in right now, blackbird fledglings have already been reported.) Some birds were not quite as far along, with a pair of buzzards seen mating mid-month, always a lucky thing to see birds doing as it's a very quick process! My rarely sighted and much admired grey partridges were paired up from mid-month, but they are too shy for me ever to hope to see much of their breeding process. Meanwhile the much more boisterous cock pheasants were seen displaying, flaring their feathers and wattle to impress the hens. A long tailed tit excitingly seemed to be starting a nest in a tree that was quite visible from the path- their nests are incredible woven balls held together with spiderweb and I've never seen one at all much less one being built, I would have loved to have watched all afternoon but my lunch break was ending as usual. Unfortunately I don't know if the nest was ever continued, it's possible the pair changed their mind about the location as I didn't see any activity in that tree on future visits.
Every year a few pairs of Canada geese breed on my patch, but in 2021 there was a very visible goose nest, with the chosen location being on the opposite bank of the river where no one could interfere with it but in full view of the footpath. That meant I was able to see exactly how long it takes to hatch a nest of goose eggs- much longer than a smaller bird's brood, as I first recorded the incubating goose on the nest on 4th April and she was still sitting at the end of the month. On every visit I would see her there, sitting patiently and grazing from plants she could reach while still on the nest. Sometimes she would get up for a break but always with the thick goose down nest lining pulled over the eggs, so I never saw them. One day towards the end of the month she was rudely attacked by another pair of geese and had to fend them off, which she successfully did and without having to get up from her eggs. Who knows what the aggressive pair were after, but maybe they were hoping to steal the nest for themselves so they didn't have to build their own. Nest interlopers are quite common in many species and are always interesting to see.
The herring gull pair continued to be weird, and a very odd display was seen early in the month- they both swam in the river, which was unusual in itself, and each fished a small piece of bark out of the water and dropped it again, apparently the same piece being grabbed by both of them. It seemed to be some sort of courtship display, perhaps related to finding nesting material, but I have no idea if it was getting anywhere as there was no direct activity between the pair. That was the last time I recorded any pairing activities from herring gulls for the year, so they either gave up or went elsewhere to breed, but this year I'm holding out hope that a pair might try to nest on a roof on the industrial estate. Fingers crossed!
The first fledgling birds I saw in the flesh were two extremely cute speckly baby robins, hunched up and keeping a low profile on a log by the river while an adult kept an eye on them. That was the 29th of April, but it wasn't the most exciting thing I saw that day. It was dramatically upstaged by a moment that I have attempted to illustrate above. As I arrived at the river I heard a loud, unfamiliar peeping sound, and suddenly realised it was coming from a single, unaccompanied goosander duckling. The tiny black and white ball of fluff was surprisingly loud! Before I really had time to wonder where the mother was I saw what it was calling to: a tightly clumped together group of nine more ducklings, floating on the river. Luckily the single duckling was able to rejoin the group quickly. There was no mother duck in sight but I thought she might have been out of sight somewhere, maybe worried about my presence, so I quickly walked on and let them be. (Their story will continue in future month posts.) I wrote last month that at the end of March I had been seeing only male goosanders rather than the usual pair- looking back now it seems likely that the female had been sitting on eggs all that time. I couldn't even begin to guess where the nest might have been though.
The month finished off with finally my first house martin of the year, also on the 29th, and on the very last day of April the growing flock of swallows and a few martins were joined by a couple of swifts, who are among the last and most carefree of our migrant birds. For a few glorious months they join us, and before we know it and just when we've gotten used to having them around, they are gone again. Till next year!
And before I forget, flower drawings added for the month were: coltsfoot, hairy bittercress, wild carrot, common field speedwell (having a 2nd go at this one!), cowslip, lesser periwinkle, common dog violet, ivy-leaved toadflax, marsh marigold, rue-leaved saxifrage, corn salad, sun spurge, pink water speedwell, cuckoo flower, germander speedwell, red campion, and a mystery flower that grows everywhere round here that I think (!) is corn marigold.
