Barton Dip and MSQ again....

Female Common Toad.

Marsh Marigold's.

Speckled Wood.

A visit to Water's Edge this morning drew a blank,while visiting the site to look for the reported Slavonian Grebe and after a conversation with Graham i learnt that on the previous evening,the Slav had been chased all over the pit by the local Great-crested Grebe's,buggar,but not was all lost,as i had seen 2 summer plumaged birds here in the past.I then decided to walk up to the Sailing pit enjoying superb views of my first Sedge,Reed and Cetti's Warbler's for the year,the Cetti's and Reed showing particularly well!.It was obvious that there was quite a lot of migrant warbler's about with me recording total's of 17 Blackcap,12 Chiffie's,7 Willow,5 Sedge and 3 Reed Warbler,an impressive haul considering we are only in the first week in April!.The highlight of the visit,was the female Long-tailed Duck watched diving for food on the Sailing pit,loosely associating with a first summer male Goldeneye,both lovely species.Raptor's also featured,with 2 Common Buzzard drifting west,a cracking male Marsh Harrier and a soaring Sparv.A fairly unseasonal sighting,was 13 Pink-footed Geese watched flying west.Insects were also apparant today,with Butterflies being represented by my first Speckled Wood and Brimstone of the year and singles of Comma,Small Tortoiseshell and a couple of Peacock.After picking Trace up from work and dropping her at home i went over to Messingham and it was nice to meet up with Teresa,Mike and Rog.The best sighting's here included a good mix of birds and Insects,with a couple of male Marsh Harrier,5 Common Buzzard,single Brambling in the plantation and more Chiffie's,Willow Warbler's and Blackcap's,coupled with my first Green-veined White of the year,3 more Speckled Wood and singles of Brimstone,Small Tort,Comma and Peacock,so six species recorded,pretty good stuff.We also managed to find more Otter sign's and also 15 Smooth Newt's in the woodland plantation,with a few Common Toad's also seen and my first Bee-Fly's of the year.So,all in all a good few hours out and about with some nice company.