BIRD NEWS:224

Now we are onto swans again and another info board - with a real life trumpeter swan along with....a magpie! I next entered a hide just along from the trumpeter swan pond area. This time, the most interesting bird to watch was a heron wading about the distant banks.

It just glided through the waters serenely, dipping down to beak at something every so often

A brief update from the back yard. As I write this blog it is now the first of August, and the yard has been fairly empty recently. The past 3-4 days have resulted in a burst of youthful sparrows, but otherwise little has appeared apart from the youngest jackdaw and a pair of magpies. I am uncertain if the pies are scaring the smaller birds or not, but that would not explain the absence of the jay that came regularly for 2 weeks...

The answer to the sand martin question in my last post - which of these 4 birds is a sand martin - is as follows: From left to right - sand martin, sand martin, swallow, swift.