Wheatears...

It's April 28th and remarkably this is my first blog post this year to feature a photo of a Wheatear. There was a time when Wheatears would feature week in and week out through the spring and then again in the autumn...maybe they're starting to lose their appeal? I don't think so...when you tire of Wheatears, you tire of birding!

With up to six Wheatears on Wanstead Flats this morning, today was a good day and with the added bonus of a peachy spring male Whinchat (the first on the patch this year) it made you forget just how miserable and cold the weather was - what a difference a week makes! Today I was trudging around in full wet weather gear, as opposed to last weekend when trainers, t-shirt and jeans were the birding clothes of choice.

The only other birds of note were a trickle of early morning Swallows heading north and my first Swifts of the year on the patch, bringing up the year list to a healthy 89 - some way off my fellow patch workers totals, but that's always the case and I gave up trying to compete years ago - still...I like to keep them on their toes.

What's not to love about Wheatears?