James

Took rather a lot that weren't at all nice!

Lovely lunch time spent with the purple emperors along the old road at Abberton. Lots of purple hairstreaks too, and white-letter on the dying elms. Really nice numbers of at least 9 species.

Lunchtime inverts: first white letter hairstreaks of the summer, and this bee which I'm 95% certain is a brown banded carder. Would appreciate thoughts, if anyone has them. Very ginger on top, which also shows on t.2, no sign of any black/dark hairs...

Orchid counting today.

I never did find time to properly explore Chafford when we lived nearby, all the little bits of land alongside roads and so on, but they're stunning places.

Counts are down on last year but perhaps to be expected with the dry start. Some tiny specimens.

Two grasshopper warblers, a reed warbler hanging on in the tiniest scrap of reeds in a ditch, and a happy scatter of skylarks and yellowhammers. Final survey visit complete.

Very much enjoyed these orchids hanging out under a thick bracken layer. Something a bit prehistoric when you get down underneath the weird frondy canopy.

Poked around the Shropshire Hills today. Bullfinch, dipper and peregrine new for the holiday list. A truly stunning landscape, so much more so than I had expected, or remember, from the childhood daytrips we had here.

I went back for another look at the wood warbler. Two calling and singing this time, both the spinning coin and peeeuuuu songs, sometimes quietly in little fluttery song flights. These are the best photos I managed, but it was raining and dark under the canopy...

I spent an hour in a forest on the Herefordshire/Shropshire border this morning. Found a single singing wood warbler, two spotted flycatchers (one "singing"), a marsh tit and a redstart. Perhaps not the best haul, but pretty chuffed all the same. My last WW was 2015!

The garden #bees that were good enough to stay still for a photo today. Red mason bee and the fantastically named hairy-footed flower bee.

The first holly blue and a handful of green-veined whites around - but where are the orange tips? Usually the most numerous spring butterfly at ours...

And I'm a fair way east of Portland!

Tbf habitat here looks ideal, and extensive.

Some high quality digi-binned footage of a singing cirl bunting this morning. Buntings are the best.

Just found two singing cirl buntings in near-coastal scrub in decidedly *east* Dorset. Probably a known site, but I had no idea they'd spread this far. That counts as self-found, right?!

Willow warbler, whitethroat new for the year. Again no wheatear.

A new one for me - early spider orchid at Durlston CP. Chiffs everywhere and a firecrest singing by the castle, but seemingly no other migrants in the hour-long, child-wrangling visit we made. Auks as fun as ever and enjoyed a feral pig pretending it has better genetics than it does.

One of three males on a survey this morning. Always feels like striking gold, especially when unexpected.

Spring.

Hares, corn bunting, yellowhammers and my first singing blackcaps hiding around the far edges of work.

Ah cool. Didn't know that.

Fingers crossed they're still hanging on - one of the very best birds.

Colleague did a playback survey there last March and came up blank - great to hear they're still there.

Marsh Tit is a great bird for the Danbury woods - will pass it on to EWT reserves monitoring people.

Details came back today for a colour ringed redshank we had on the Colne at Fingringhoe Wick EWT in January. It was ringed in Jan of 2012 (!) on the Orwell and recorded 29 times since, all of which before our sighting were on the Orwell. Not a bird that moves far, then.

Merlin and barn owl at Tollesbury this morning. #bestphotography.

Also 20+ corn buntings, stacks of beardies, short eared owl, spotted redshank, mergansers... And none of the forecast rain.

Work bird race today. Difficult start with thick fog and ice, but we managed 92 species across three of our north Essex sites. GG Shrike, corn bunting, SEO, woodcock, bullfinch and hen harrier among the best birds, and a pint at the end. A good day.

Finally got the shrike! Showed well if distantly at dusk.

Only lost two fingers to frostbite. Worth it.

Two attempts at seeing the GG Shrike today, both failed. Hard to feel too upset though, with four hen harriers on site, 5 cattle egrets, c12 corn buntings, 2 barn owls and a little owl. Some of my very best photography is attached.

One of four great northern divers seen with a sandwich tern and a handful of pale bellied brents while waiting for the Studland ferry. Bye until Easter, #dorsetbirds

Sigh. Time off for a Dorset jaunt and great grey shrike appears at work!

Still, a lovely evening to fail at finding my own at Durlston. Not an ideal site for the task, sure, and I could have tried somewhere with form like Morden Bog, but I've a soft spot for Durlston. Barn owl almost the only bird.

The shorelark at East Mersea will be the last good bird of the year. Who doesn't love a shorelark? This one as previous is pretty happy to poke around just a few metres from you (and your noisy children ffs)

c200 each teal and wigeon, decent numbers coot/GC grebe, but just ones and twos of anything else. From what I could see of the west bank, nothing over there - but some (water company?) ppl on the concrete bank by the dam prob didn't help.

Would say far fewer than 2700 individuals, anyway!

Spent my first Christmas day off poking around Hanningfield, a childhood haunt for which I'll always have a soft spot. The velvet scoter showed nicely but finding a yellow legged gull interesting showed how few other birds there were. At least I didn't vomit while looking at it, so that was nice.

I watched the tide come up the channel at lunchtime today. Two great northern divers new for the year, with 18 RB mergs, peregrine, barn owls, kingfisher, two dozen marsh harriers, hen harrier, 3 egret sp, redpoll over... A real privilege to have this at work.