end of April

An all too brief visit to Arlington Reservoir.

 Linnet

House Martin, my first of the year

ARCHIVE South Africa 8

Flew north, from the relatively cool Cape to a sweltering Phalaborwa, via Johannesburg. Landing was just how I had always imagined Africa to be with Mopane scrub woodland, orange sandy-soil and termite mounds in the airport grounds.

Laughing Dove

Violet-backed Starling. This summer migrant would be leaving the Kruger and migrating north.

An exciting sign that greets you on entry the Kruger at the Phalaborwa Gate

My first African Fish Eagle.

Cape Buffalo at the Nhlanganini Dam

Cape Buffalo with Yellow-billed Oxpeckers.

Impala

African Elephant

Warthog

Termite mound

Wooly-necked Stork on the Nhlanganini River

Elipsen Waterbuck

Brown-headed Parrot in Letaba rest camp

Burchell's Zebra

Cape or South African Giraffe.

Nile Crocodile on the Letaba River

Chacma Baboons

Views of the Oliphants River from the rest camp of the same name.

Stick insect

Dusk at Oliphants rest camp. The sky was full of bats and a Sooty Falcon was hawking for insects.

Little Bunting

Some days you just get lucky. I was at Birling Gap when Beachybirder tweeted about a Little Bunting at Shooters Bottom.

A really lovely bird, which was a lifetime first for me.

Garden Warbler

 Whitethroat

April - after the cold weather

Bosham, just south of Chichester. I visited at the end of the Easter holidays, on what seemed like the first sunny day of April.

 One of two Firecrests in the churchyard.

 Sparrowhawk over the estuary

 A distant Whimbrel, one of two.

My first Holly Blue of the year, also in the churchyard.

This Black Redstart appeared in my garden at dusk. There was one in the autumn too. I would love to think they are the same bird.

Last weekend I visited Sevenoaks LNR for the first time in over 20 years.

 Jay

 Little Ringed Plovers. One of two pairs nesting at Sevenoaks LNR

 Lapwing. Several pairs appear to be nesting

Two of the six Black-necked Grebes at Sevenoaks, in their summer finery.

Great Crested Grebe

I visited Old Lodge on a wonderfully warm and sunny day. Hard to believe it was the same place I had walked around in the winter. The reserve had good numbers of Willow Warbler, Tree Pipit and Woodlark, plus at least two Cuckoos.

 Chiffchaff

 Blackcap

 Common Redstart, one of two seen

Woodlark

 Stonechat.

Dusk at Hill Road Eastbourne

 Heliophanus cupreus, the Copper Sun Jumping Spider. Afirst for my Eastbourne garden.

Zebra Jumping Spider, just before it jumped onto my camera lens