Yesterday turned out to be an interesting one for migrants.
First of all, in the late afternoon from my kitchen which looks into the garden I caught sight of a Chiffchaff, a garden first. These are one of the first migrant warbler species to arrive on the shores of the UK in the spring, in fact we do have a small population that spends the winter here on the South and South West coast. I actually watched and photographed one in February not far from the garden by the banks of the local River Exe.
The photograph is not the strongest I have taken, but I always like to use my own photographs on my Blog. The one in the garden had a very noticeable eye stripe. If you click on the link here, you can see in the illustration how noticeable the eye stripe can be. This was the first impression from our specimen. I rushed to get my camera but by the time I returned we had no sight of it. While you are on the RSPB site, play the sound clip because the call is very distinctive and although I have yet to hear one this year, when you do it is unmistakable.
The first illustration is a Wheatear , this is the bird that I photographed last Sunday. Wheatears are one of the earliest migrants. The males arrive first having crossed the Sahara Desert, then the Mediterranean Sea, mainland Europe and finally the English Channel. This bird looks in fine fettle in spite of the marathon he has just performed.
So two species observed around about my home patch, but there was of course the Sand Martin on Saturday. But yesterday flying around the local Ship Canal…see photo….. I watched 4 or 5 House Martins swooping over the water. I tried really hard for a photograph but to no avail! They are so tricky to capture in flight.

The weather has decided to brighten up and I plan a walk later on, it will be interesting to see what today brings to our shores.