As I ran along past London Road lake and Clay Lane on a beautiful morning, there are plenty of brimstone, peacock and small tortoiseshell butterflies flitting about, and on the lake there were a mummy mallard and her 5 ducklings, and they weren't hatchlings either, they were a good few days old.
A plump female pheasant was flushed by my oh so delicate footsteps, and I believe I even saw a Hirundid of some description rocketing away from the castleside river bank. I never got a close look but the way it flew made me think of some kind of martin. I know sand martins nest along that stretch of bank, so it was perhaps one of them.
And yet there are throwbacks to the cold months still around. Yesterday there were 30 redwing out on the road near the cotham flash, and today a small flock of redwing kept flying from me as I ran along Clay Lane. Really, you'd think they would have headed back to Scandinavia by now. I suspect when the weather warms and the wind changes into a more southerly one in the next couple of days, they will be off home to breed.
SAdly, the sun has gone for the day, and there is a threat of rain in the air. Tomorrow I hope to get out to Langford Lowfields for the first time this year, and then a first trip to Attenborough in the week. I'm just loving being outside without my hands turning purple and raw!
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