Good, Bad, and Great News

My morning walk to the Mill Lakes was a good one, with a few year ticks in the form spring migrants. A group of four Common Tern flew south-west over Leen Pastures, lingering for a few minutes over the Golf Course before heading west. A pair of Gadwall were still on the lake, a Great Crested Grebe was on its nest and, yet again, a Common Snipe flushed from the Dipping Ponds Boardwalk. Load of Common Whitethroat have arrived, with singing males at Dawson's Corner and all along the Railway Line. As I headed off, two Common Swift were hawking insects over the lake, and a single Red-legged Partridge was in Spinney Field. The downside of my morning was encountering two sets of poachers, at Leen Pastures and in the woodland near Bestwood Lodge, but I won't dwell on the bad.

At home in the afternoon, a quick glance from one of the bedroom windows and I glimpsed a medium-large raptor drifting low east to west over the woodland - it was a Red Kite! The bird was gliding rather than actively flapping its wings. Viewing through bins initially showed a reddy-brown plumage, then the pale head and wing markings could be seen when the bird banked left and right. These movements also revealed the strongly fanned V-shaped tail. After getting some record shots, the bird had changed direction and started gaining height over the Big Wood School area before it drifted off very high to the south-eat in the direction of Arnold.