Mild but damp after overnight rain.
I really must try to keep this more up to date. Most of the local birds appear to be busy singing and nest building. Almost everything is carrying bits of stick, moss, grass, feathers etc. depending on size and species of course.
I have seen a single Lesser Spotted Woodpecker on several occasions, sometimes drumming and usually high up in large Oak trees. Also one sighting of a Greater Spotted Woodpecker in the Oak wood near our village football field.
Members of the Thrush family seem to be very much in evidence probably because I see them feeding out in the open. A Mistle Thrush was seen chasing a Jay this morning, I hope it hadn't lost eggs or young to this colourful member of the Crow family. Song Thrushes and Blackbirds seem to abound at the moment, I guess it is easier feeding now that we have had an appreciable amount of rain. When it is very dry they seem to spend a lot of time rooting about under shrubs and through the accumulated leaves on the ground, looking for sustenance.
A very unusual sighting from my window yesterday. A pair of Mandarin Ducks flew in and landed in an Oak tree before dropping into the recently replanted area of Forestry land adjacent. I guess that they were nest site hunting. There are surely plenty of nooks and crannies among the piles of treetops etc. that are to be found on that piece of ground. It is a long way from any water and that is only a tiny brook that leads off towards the A48.