Hirundine

 I am no good at new year resolutions so don't make any, however each spring when I see my first sand martin, swallow and house martin, I say to myself that I ought to appreciate them more, not just tick them off on my year list. So when I saw them this morning at Bank Island 

I watched for a long time. They would often sit on the wires, just a bit too far away for my camera

I wondered if they were chatting to each other, asking how their journey was! However I kept hearing a noise on my left, so stopped looking at the hirundine and concentrated on the noise. Eventually I located the source of the noise, a female kestrel. She was sat on a branch, again a bit too far away for my camera and she was in some shade.

then the male appeared

then they started to mate

I then went back to watching the hirundine but heard a blackcap singing on my left. I could not see it but these butterflies were on the blackthorn.

I could see 29 shelduck at the far end of the water and one or two curlew. I spent a bit more time watching the sand martins before going home for lunch. Late afternoon I went to North Duffield Carrs.

Two cars in the car park, but one couple from Malton were just leaving, so I hoped that there were not too many people from the other car in the hide. There were 5 of them, but they were not in the hide, they were coming back to their car through the field and one had a fishing rod in his hand!!

When I got in the hide I could see that all the birds were on the farm side of the water, which made me wonder if the people had disturbed the birds.

2 red kites were looking for food at the far end of the reserve and 2 little ringed plovers were on the scrape. There were not as many birds as yesterday, so was it disturbance or have they all gone north?

They may all return when the weather changes tomorrow.