Out early this morning to see if there were any sand martins or swallows feeding over the brooks - no such luck, but I'm sure they will be here soon. The only spring migrants I could find were 2 or 3 chiffchaffs singing between the hanger viewpoint and Nettley's hide. There was quite a lot of winter stuff still about though - at least 70 redwings spread along the hedges/trees of the 'green lane', most of them singing, and a flock of 20-30 fieldfares in the scrub at the bottom of the zigzags which were not singing, just doing their normal chattering as they flew off. Why is it that redwings sing before they head north and fieldfares do not? Into the winter mix, there were also a few redpolls in the birches near where I saw the fieldfares. Some of those were singing too...
Back to spring activity, from the hanger viewpoint I could see a pair of carrion crows collecting nesting material from a big willow tree and a great spotted woodpecker excavating a nest hole in an oak. On the north brooks I witnessed a furious battle between two male shelducks that last a good two minutes, before one (very sensibly) decided to back down and several 'pursuit flights' involving groups of shovelers (5 or 6 males chasing one female). There was also a hunting barn owl and 3 black-tailed godwits present but I couldn't find the little ringed plover from earlier in the week.