The weather forecasters promised the ''best day of the holiday weekend'' was to be today, so it was with great anticipation that I awoke this morning ready for at least some brightness and a drop in the wind. As ever the forecst was miles out!!

I left the house at 06:45, and within 5 mins it started raining, the wind was no less strong than previous days and it was cold. In these conditions it wasn't surprising that very little in the way of spring activity was noted, even the CHIFFCHAFFS had stopped singing!

There were few highlights, if any. A brave SWALLOW had arrived at the College Stables, this one was a local breeding bird, and it circled over prospecting for a nest site. A GREY HERON and a CORMORANT flew over Migrant Alley, while at the College Grounds a male BLACKCAP was seen, but it wasn't singing!

That was about as exciting as it got! Just 42 species were seen, thats at least 7 less than I would expect at this time of year. By 9:45 I called it a day, as another heavy shower came rolling in, by 10:30 I was back in bed!!!

After an hours hibernation, the weather had only improved slightly, so I decided to take some garden bird pics - see below.

Late on around 15:30 the sun broke through the clouds and some short sunny intervals were had, so I went over to Migrant Alley for a skywatch, where the PEREGRINE was seen, as well as a SPARROWHAWK, and 4 more Swallows. A few LESSER BLACK BACKED and HERRING GULLS were around, and the day list got to 44, but in all it was a very poor April day :-(

Below is an Immature Herring Gull, or possibly an Immature Lesser Black Backed Gull, that flew over Migrant Alley this afternoon.

Below is a BRAMBLING that visited my garden

As did this GREAT SPOTTED WOODPECKER

BLUE TIT

GREAT TIT

and GOLDFINCH

PS: a LITTLE OWL (55) was added to the months list yesterday evening, heard whilst I was leaning out the window watching the impressive shower clouds building. :-)

Once again it was cool and blustery out on my patch this morning, but the forecast showers all passed to the west of my patch, apart from one early on, and later in the afternoon it became a bit warmer with some sunny spells.

In the cool of early morning it was again hard to find any meaningful song, only slowly did it pick up, with SONGTHRUSH, MISTLE THRUSH, BLACKBIRD, DUNNOCK, ROBIN and WREN all eventually finding their voices. Of the summer arrivals CHIFCHAFFS were the most vocal, they are being recorded all over my patch now, but Only one BLACKCAP sang, that was from the scrub area from around the lake, where GOLDCREST song has diminished somewhat, maybe they are all paired up now ?

Two SWALLOWS were seen going over Migrant Alley, and a YELLOWHAMMER sang from the tall hedgerow there, whilst across the way, on the college sports pitch, a lone FIELDFARE (52) was seen, I was pleased with this sighting, as not only is it a new species for the month, but it's one left from the winter, and perversly it's these winter leftovers that will be needed if i'm going to set a new April record.

I had an hour out this afternoon, skywatching at Migrant Alley, which gave me 3 Raptor species to add to the PEREGRINE (53) already seen from my front room window. Firstly the KESTREL over the Greenhouse Complex, which somehow evaded being seen this morning, and a bit more exciting a BUZZARD (54) which drifed over whilst I had a SPARROWHAWK in view!

The months list moves on to 54, but it will surely rise in the next few days, as will the year list, as more summer migrants arrive.

Only one photo today - a LNNET