March 31st 2011

The wind was bordering on the dangerous with gust of 46mph recorded at the pond this morning making walking and viewing difficult.
In two hours Mark and I had only seen 50 Sand Martin and a Blackcap so a bit disappointed and grateful to Bob for putting us on to the recently arrived Yellow Wagtails (2 though he had 6 earlier) which we had missed. Bob also had first summer Little Gull earlier.
After brunch and already knowing the high ground would be a waste of time we still went to Napton on the Hill mainly for the views and the exhilaration of being buffeted by increasing winds. We were not disappointed
Odd sighting of low flying passenger jet plane heading for Birmingham Airport – normally they are at 15,000ft and descending – this one was around the 5000ft mark and suddenly put his engines in to warp power and started climbing quickly. Sparrowhawk, Buzzard 3, Mistle Thrush 2 and Chiffchaff just about heard over the din of the wind was all we could manage.
Mark had Sand Martins migrating over his garden tonight and as I checked mine 16 wagtails went over.

Richard