April 19th - on arrival this morning, a Cuckoo was singing from the southern bank. Unfortunately, after a few minutes it stopped and presumably departed, as it wasn't heard again.
A cool easterly wind had been blowing over the past couple of days. Winds from this direction often see an arrival of migrant terns, gulls and waders, so it's always worth a look just in case. Several Common Terns were the only migrants visible first thing, however, when I reached the middle of the southern bank, a tight group of 6 terns flew in over my head and proceeded to fly around the lake. A nice group of Arctic Terns - always nice to see. I spent some time watching these and about 15 minutes later, another group of terns descended to join them - there were now 9 Arctics present, all flying in a fairly tight flock around the lake. They remained for at least the next hour, but as I was leaving, just a single bird was left, the other birds had left unseen whilst I was walking back.
A quick visit to Pump Lane paddocks in the afternoon for possible Wheatear, Redstart or chats found none of these, but a Lesser Whitethroat was rattling away from the hawthorn hedge by the vine fields.
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