LONGHIRST & LINTON LANE

two trips to longhirst flash on the 20th& 23rd april produced very little in the way of birds these two lesser black backed gulls were notable and my first this year .

I often stop off at longhirst flash but so far I have not seen anything special Im sure a great white egret visited here once

I decided to stretch the site a bit and check out the woods next to
this sign

this proved to be a decent area to watch there was a bullfinch and chiff chaffs calling and also a pair of jays ill have to stop off here again to see whats about.

A visit to linton lane afterwards and managed to get my first willow warbler this year but there was very little in the way of waders on the main pond still early days.

Yellow hammer / Linton woods

BOTHAL 20th APRIL

A bit of spare time today so i went up to bothal to see if any waders were knocking around yet I heard a report of a green sandpiper had been seen here recently but on arrival the only waders on show were a single redshank and the usual lapwings .
a scan around the ponds produced the following

robin
tree sparrow
canada goose
pochard
tufted duck
mallard
shoveler
gadwell
jackdaw
coot
mute swan
carrion crow
lapwing
starling
wigion
redshank
shellduck
black headed gull
little grebe

I then headed to the castle and walked along the footpath and down to the steppy stones stopping along the way to see if there were any migrants in the area their were plenty chiff chaffs calling but I could not get any in my bins and what looked like a blackcap but moved too fast to get a decent view

On the river near the steppy stones was this grey wagtail first of the year and also chaffinch doing its best to impersonate a flycatcher by grabbing insects in flight and returning to a high perch

something I haven't seen before has anyone else.

birds seen

dunnock

blue tit

blackbird

chaffinch

goldfinch

grey wagtail

great tit

robin
my Bothal list now stands at 71 species