Spring is arriving with a force at the moment. Buds are bursting forth, flowers are coming out and even some migrants are starting to arrive. For birders one of the spring specials are lesser spotted woodpeckers. The smaller cousins of our commoner greater spots they are much rarer and slightly mythical. They lurk in the tops of trees and are incredibly hard to find. Out of breeding season you rarely see them. In late February through early April they are mating and with that comes lots of calling and drumming. With no leaves on the trees they are also a lot easier to see.
Early morning had me at one of their known sites. They are most active just after dawn and this proved to be the case today. I was a bit late to the party and other birders on site had already seen them calling and flying around. I had to wait 20 minutes or so before I first heard drumming and then calling. Finally a very small bird, no bigger than a sparrow, flew into a nearby tree and started calling.
This was one of the females. Different to the greater spotted version in size and also with that laddering pattern on their backs. It didn't stay long and flew back away from us. No more calls whilst I was there so it is very definitely an early morning job.
After this I pottered off to a couple more sites. Weeting Heath has got its stone curlews back and I did manage to connect with one. It is an awful site for viewing them though and today proved no different. One flight view before they dropped out of sight and into the heat haze! Still, another year tick but I'll get better views later on I hope at other sites. Next was a short hop to Welney. My main target was the tundra bean geese which have been overwintering there. I got them, a group of 2 and another of 6 or 7, on a very distant spit from the main observatory.
They are one of the grey geese and have only recently split out from their cousins the taiga bean geese. They look a bit like pink-footed geese but the bill and legs (if you can see them) are diagnostic. Not much else around though the winter swans and godwits were present in good numbers.
On the way back I stopped off in the fields near Royston to see if the hares were around. Mostly they were quite distant and the wheat is now getting a bit high.
One came close to the car as it hopped through the fields. There were a good number of corn buntings jangling away on the bushes and wires which was nice.
Definitely feeling like Spring but I've yet to see a swallow!!!
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