One Swallow Doesn't Make A Summer...

....but does two?

I was very happy to see (and hear) two Swallows with ten Sand Martins over Lower Bruckland Ponds this afternoon.  Throw in about five Chiffchaffs (two singing) and it should have felt very spring like.... well it didn't at all!  It was absolutely bloody freezing grotty weather with rain and gusty winds, and then 'tchak-tchak-tchak'; 45 Fieldfares flew over low east! It felt more like the middle of winter.

Always like to get a pic of my first Swallow of the year but the dull conditions didn't help

Part of the Fieldfare flock. You can actually just about make out a Sand Martin in the bottom left hand corner of the shot too.

I've checked the Estuary gulls several times today, as we are well overdue another white-winger. Nothing really, with the only 'oddity' amongst the larids being this...

"oh crap - water water and water, where do I go? I need a car to run in front of quick!"

Over on Seaton Marshes, I failed to see any Wheatears again, with only the lingering drake Gadwall being notable...

A very underrated duck