Tue 02/04/2019

It was lovely and warm and sunny on Saturday and British Summer Time officially started overnight, but it’s been going downhill again ever since. This morning it was overcast and cold; it rained in the afternoon and got colder still. A bit of a birdy day today though; I saw the year’s first swallow flying high overhead as I approached the factory gates at 7:00am. It did not a summer make, but was flying purposefully straight in a westerly direction. Then on the way home, I paused at the top of Church Walk as a great spotted woodpecker swooped low into a tree I had just passed and commenced attacking the branches with short, digging motions of its beak, sending woodchips dropping on to the path. As I watched, another one landed up at the top of the same tree, near to where a goldfinch was slowly edging along the branch. It might be the best view I have ever had of a spotted woodpecker, but of course today was the day I had forgotten my camera. No matter, the light was a bit dull to get a really good shot anyway, but I stood and watched both of them for a fair while, listening to a chiffchaff chirping nearby.