Seen today

[Steph]

DM's third picture looks to me like a female house sparrow. The beak is totally different from the other photos. I reckon the others are dunnocks.

Just looked. Exactly my view: D, D, S, D, D.

As opposed to SS, DD, of course.

[David Martin]

OK, try this one - WIllow warbler or chiffchaff? Two pics of the same bird.

Willow Warbler by David Martin, on Flickr

Willow warbler by David Martin, on Flickr

I'm leaning towards WW based on the paler legs and maybe longer primary feathers.

Didn't know enough to get any song info. Spotted in  a patch of scrub woodland on the edge of a sea loch (see the GPS tag and satellite view.)

[SteveC]

OK, try this one - WIllow warbler or chiffchaff? Two pics of the same bird.
I'm leaning towards WW based on the paler legs and maybe longer primary feathers.

The dreaded willow-chiff 
I've seen birders far more experienced than me argue over these two and that was with the bird in a tree just a few yards away.
Paler legs is the usual clue but that's not easy when you don't have a chiffchaff handy for comparison purposes.

[cycleman]

a green woodpecker along the jubilee river the afternoon .

[David Martin]

First bats of the year. Soprano and Common pipistrelles in the Miley, old railway line nature reserve.

[Basil]

First swift of the year this morning.

[David Martin]

I think they may be back in our eaves. I'll have to check. Certainly heard a different cry in the air tonight, not the usual gulls.

[Sergeant Pluck]

Yesterday in Richmond Park:

Common kestrels x2, one appearing to feed the other, and a short time later there was mating (I think - lasted approx 5 seconds).

Brown treecreepers x many, most entertaining and gravity defying

Tadpoles x thousands, still legless

Fox x 1

Crows and jackdaws, so many it is a wonder there is anything left to eat for anything else.

Idiots x many, annoying the deer.

[BrianI]

Baby Sheeps in Broomhall Estate (near Limekilns, Fife).  Glad I took my bridge camera with me on my 30k off road bike ride this morning!   

[Basil]

And today, my first swallows of the year.  Several.  On the coastal path at Aberaeron.

[Pingu]

First swallows of the year also 

[David Martin]

Treecreeper on Balgay Hill

[David Martin]

Goldfinches in Baxter Park. Nothing particularly exceptional.

[fuzzy]

As I came throught he woods journeying home last night, a deer, not a Muntjack though not big. It reminded me of the babycham deer as the antlers were short, straight up with a backwards curl at the end. Lovel;y reddish brown colour with darker hues of the same colour in the velvet.

[pcolbeck]

A bloody great buzzard yesterday. Not uncommon round here but usually seen circling high in the sky. Yesterday though I was walking the dog along a track near home and to my right was a livestock fence with a few scrubby low bushes behind it. As we walked past a very large buzzard that had been hidden behind the bushes leapt into the air. It must have been only about five feet away. Very impressive close up.

[Wowbagger]

On hearing the first cuckoo in spring, I thought "You're a bloody loony coming here when the alternative is Africa!" We were on Two Tree Island. When I parked the car its thermometer said 4°C. When I got back, it said 5°C. I don't think I have ever heard a cuckoo in colder conditions.

There were also lots of whitethroats, which I find very endearing little birds.

[citoyen]

A ruddy great grey heron, viewed from my office, flying over the trees across the road.

[rafletcher]

A badger latrine, and a roe deer browsing on dome fresh beech leaves, in one of our local nature reserves.

[Wowbagger]

A ruddy great grey heron, viewed from my office, flying over the trees across the road.

A heron has put in an appearance lately in our local park, and I have seen him a few times, including today. This morning, I happened to natter to an occasional acquaintance, a lady of an uncertain age, but considerably older than I am. She asked me if I had seen the pelican that had taken up residence by the lake. I had to confess that I hadn't and was quite surprised to hear of its existence, given that the park was not heaving with specimens of the species twitcherus lensimaximus. We were strolling towards the lake and there indeed was the heron. I assured her that it was not a pelican but I am not certain that she believed me.

[Feanor]

Snakeses. Quite a few, but all dead by the roadside.

Well, there's one I'm not sure about; I didn't spot it till I ran over it. I didn't stop to investigate. It was about 3 feet long stretched across the bike lane, but quite skinny. About 2 or 3 cm diameter.

[rafletcher]

Another walk in the nature reserve. Plant your of bluebells, a few orchids coming up, and a very rare sighting of a Duke of Burgundy butterfly.

[perpetual dan]

Blackbirds collecting nest material into the bush by our kitchen window.
Also, on my ride, one each of Swallow, Skylark and Pheasant.

[SteveC]

Yesterday, swifts over the garden.
Today a wren on the fence (first time we've seen one this year although I've been hearing them for ages), and swallows and martins above the garden.
 

[David Martin]

Skylarks were in full voice and also building nests/collecting food today.
skylark by David Martin, on Flickr
skylark2 by David Martin, on Flickr

[Jayjay]

Blackbird family in Mum's garden, the cock bird taking softened currants off my hand - he's got a sharp bill. Didn't feed the hen directly, she had a "yummy" big caterpillar drooping from her beak. She's quite happy to collect them from the doorstep instead though usually she's the boldest. Mum says the chicks have started to come to the door handrail with the parents.
Heard but not seen - first whitethroat of my rides to work this year.