White-fronted Geese

A very welcome spring-like day, with plenty of sunshine - and one where I also had time to go for an afternoon walk round the Etton and Maxey area. Quite a few interesting birds had been seen in the last few days, so this was an added incentive.

A few minutes after setting off from the car I heard my first Chiffchaf of the year, though the call was rather feeble and only repeated a couple of times - perhaps it needs to regain some energy after the rigours of migration! It was fairly quiet for a while on the bird front, although there were Oystercatcher and Lapwing feeding on flooded arable fields, but there were other signs of spring, including the first Blackthorn blossom of the year, and a Goat Willow in full and splendid flower.

After a while I heard the distant honking of geese, and was soon able to see a large group of Greylags on one of the flooded pits, alongside a group of six Siberian White-fronted Geese - a rather rare winter-visitor to these parts. They were quite distant and against the setting sun, so I walked onto the bank of the South Drain to try and get a better view, but this was the best I could manage. 

There were more good bird sightings in the last part of my walk including a group of Egyptian Geese grazing on an arable field, several female Stonechats, a group of Linnets and a large group of Redwing foraging on a sheep-grazed field. But the absolute highlight was when I spotted a pair of KIngfishers at their nest site. Far too distant to get any good photographs, but just lovely to watch their behaviour.