Play Misty for Me

With a Mother's Day meal booked I had to keep things relatively close to home today and so went no further than Priors Hall. Early morning mist made things more than a little difficult but thankfully the sun burned its way through the murk and I found a few bits and bobs to have a squint at.

It's not just Gorillas in the mist.

As visibility was so duff to begin with I relied on my ears to check what was around. It sounded as if plenty of Redwings were still about and I also heard my first Bullfinch song of the Spring so far. Geese are always a feature of this time of year and I heard several pairs passing overhead. By the time I reached Weldon Industrial Estate the mist was just beginning to clear though the herd of about twelve Fallow Deer that I saw here were still pretty obscured. Deer here must be fairly used to humans now and these were no where near as skittish as usual.

Priors goodies.

Now that the veil of mist had all but cleared I decided to pop into Priors Hall to see what was around and I'm glad that I did as it was fairly productive. A Brown Hare was the first find, it shot off over the almost lunar style landscape. Near the main lake a Shelduck was preening, they're quite regular here in Spring. This site is really improving for wildfowl and three Pochards which still remain rather scarce around here joined two Teal, ten or more Mallards and five Tufted Ducks. Two Mute Swans also seem to have settled in and there was also a few Greylags, four Cormorants, a Dabchick, a fishing Little Egret as well as Coots to watch. Lapwings are beginning to return and they shared the area with my first Spring migrant of the year, a Little Ringed Plover which was found feeding next to one of the pools.

Wandering Greylags are a feature of Spring days.

Satisfied that I had seen everything I then headed over to Weldon where I checked the A43 pond first. With the ice now gone birds have been quick to return. Five Canada Geese  were a nice find and their numbers were matched by Greylags. Nine Tufties were present too while Coots, Dabchick and Mallards had also returned. Even the other pond had something to see with a pair of adult Mute Swans joining the immature, not sure that it's going to be allowed to stay for much longer though! A pair of Gadwalls added to the days total though they didn't stay long, both birds headed off towards Priors.

Mute Swan and Gadwall.

With a bit of warm(ish) sunshine filtering down I started to look for any early butterflies and with this in mind I dropped in to the old patch. It turned out that things had more of a wintery vibe here as the only things that I could find were several Redwings, a small flock of Siskins and a Woodcock which I flushed from near the entrance. With time now very much an issue I left it at that and headed off home more than happy with the morning's viewing.

Lesser Celandines.