A cooler day than yesterday, but one of beautiful skies with cumulus cloud under much higher cirrus streaks. I was watching buzzards, rooks and herring gulls thermalling this morning. Without a wingbeat they climbed hundreds of feet in minutes. Then a less familiar shape came from the South West. A red kite drifted over us and began circling, joining a pair of buzzrads who were already riding high on the same thermal. Within minutes the kite was a speck, even through binoculars.
Blackbird song filed the air today. Two males were singing at each other only about fifty feet apart. Now is the time to savour that rich, slow song, with Spring at its peak. The trees are bursting into leaf now, it is peak dandelion time. Within a few days those warm yellow blooms will all be clocks providing a banquet for finches.
