Summer on its way.

At last the temperatures seem to be rising after the cool north winds of early May. The only bird sightings of note were 3 Common Sandpipers on the 5th and 8 Yellow Wagtails and 3 Sedge Warblers on the 6th May. A Grasshopper Warbler was still reeling at Bagworth heath on the 18th and a pair of Lesser Whitethroat were seen.

Dipped??

The final migrants have been arriving with 4 Swifts and a Sedge warbler on the 26th April and a Garden warbler on May 1st. Highlight was a probable female Marsh Harrier that flew north at 1900 on 27th April. A Grasshopper warbler was reeling below the dam on 28th. Today, a second hand report of what sounded like a Common Crane at about 9am got my pulse racing. The observer said that he heard the bird before he saw it and that it was like a "Heron on steroids!!" It flew away to the north. D.W. and I checked fields between Thornton and Stanton, but it was not until I checked Birdguides that I realised that I might have dipped a Thornton first. A Common Crane was at Ogston res. at 11.11, and I am sure a crane could easily make the 70 miles in two hours.