There were some fieldfares down by the pond today collecting mud and moss, presumably for nest building. They seemed to be heading towards the other side of the valley with the material so they must be nesting over there.

It was a much nicer day today with warm sunshine.

A kestrel stayed close to the house all day.

There were several whinchats flying over the Harrerbuckel including a male/female pair.

Towards the evening I was excited to see an osprey fly high over the valley. I'd hoped I'd got some good photos this time, but it seems that it was too far away.

I saw a couple of whinchats early this morning but by 9:00 they'd disappeared. It was so cold there didn't seem to be much flying.

I went for a run and I'm convinced I saw a female capercaille up on the Finkenberg. The bird I saw was huge - as big as a goose, but it flew like a game bird, had a pale mottled breast and a russet tail with a lighter band on the trailing edge. I was too shocked to take a photo.

There are about 3 days every spring where we see lots of interesting migrating birds. Last year it began on 20th April. The bad weather has delayed things a bit, but today they arrived.

We had a new species for us, our 80th - a stonechat - along with a few whinchats and a pied flycatcher. If you consider that last year was a leap year, the 20th April was the 111th day of 2016. Today is the 112th day of 2017 - the whinchats arrived just one day later than last year.

The day ended with this pair of black redstarts sitting on one on my perches.

Today we saw 27 species of bird - a new record.

The weather continues to be wintery and there was more heavy snow today. Last night it was -6^oC.

A red squirrel has taken up residence in one of our bird feeders.

There were a lot of chaffinches about as usual which attracted the attention of a sparrowhawk. He sat in the hawthorn for a while thinking he was hidden, but all the birds disappeared until he left.

It turned decidedly wintery for the remainder of the Easter weekend and it was snowing heavily by today.

I'd had an occasional look out of the window as it is coming up to the time when we see all sorts of unusual migratory birds passing through or staying with us for a couple of days. The weather is so bad that I'm beginning to think we might miss out this year.

Even so, in the early afternoon mirk, I saw a handful of swallows diving down to drink at the pond. I didn't rush to get my camera as they are so fast and the light was terrible. However, they started fluttering around in the grass in front of the house and were behaving very strangely so I rushed to get my camera and here are the results. I don't really know what they were doing but it was snowing heavily and they may have been disorientated.

There was a chilly breeze today so I watched the birds from the luxury of our top floor.

The male common redstart was around a lot today and I'm hoping he's establishing a territory and that they will breed here this year.

There were a pair of blackcaps around too - they've already paired off by the look of it. They were spending a lot of time in the broom shrubs - there's something in there that they like.

I've included a photo of a blue tit today. This one seemed particularly small.

More and more flowers are blooming like the marsh marigolds down by the pond. And our plum tree is just starting to blossom.

This morning two of my emperor moths emerged, a male and a female. I managed to separate them before they mated and I put the netted female outside to see how many males were attracted. It was quite cold today so I wasn't surprised that we only had one visitor. They've probably emerged a bit too early this year - last year they emerged a week or so later. Anyway, the deed was done and I've been rewarded with a new batch of eggs for next year. I put the female on our hazel tree to see whether she'd lay any more eggs, but she just sat there and was still in the same place a couple of days later.

This afternoon, there was a small flock of fieldfare down by the pond. For some reason, fieldfare don't seem to like it much in the valley and we don't see them that often.

I put out the moth trap for the first time this year. There was nothing exciting in there this morning, but it was quite cold and there was a fullish moon. Lots of hebrew characters and a couple of quakers - standard fare for this time of year.

I managed to take some photos of a willow warbler who stayed in the garden for a long time this afternoon.

It crept close to 30^oC on the patio this afternoon.

The valley was alive with birdsong. I'm 90% sure I saw a female blackcap first thing this morning and although we didn't see any more, we definitely heard their characteristic song around the house today.

In total we had 26 bird species, including a few common redstarts and a kestrel. That's a record for the garden. Previously we've recorded 25 species on one day only once before - on the 20th April 2016 which is right in the middle of the spring migration week where we see all sorts of unusual species. Today we had common redstarts and a willow warbler and this is the earliest we've seen them.

A common lizard was basking on top of the hedge.

The marsh orchids we've got up on the triangle of land above the house are peeking through the soil and the little patch of ramsons have spread into 6 individual plants this year.

The maple is flowering too.

The bullfinches we had in the garden throughout last year, disappeared for a few months in the depths of winter, but we've got a breeding pair back right now. The female is very demure and waits patiently for the male to stuff his face with sunflower seeds. She seems to have a slightly deformed beak which will hopefully help to identify her in the future.

The pair of treecreepers were around while I had my camera out so I got lots of photos. I was a bit disappointed with the results as I think the camera has problems focusing on their cryptic patterning. I managed to get one photo when he/she was climbing on our shed. This is the closest I've ever got and the light was reasonable too. In the other photo, one of them was climbing up the birch tree.

It was a beautiful, warm spring day.

There have been lots of birds and butterflies flying around.

This large tortoiseshell has decided our birch tree is his favourite. He's been patrolling up and down past the house, but he always returns to the birch to bask in the sun.

We've had a pair of crested tits and a pair of treecreepers in the garden recently. I got some photos of one of the crested tits today. His position in this photo really shows his impressive crest.