Durham, 5th April

What a brilliant spring day this turned out to be - nothing out of this world bird wise, but a beautiful day spent pottering around with family in the sunny wooded edges of Durham city. In the morning we took a rather convoluted journey down town via some woods where we enjoyed nuthatch, willow tit, great-spotted woodpecker, and great close up views of a couple of roe deer, that made Claire's day too. After lunch we had a few hours in the sun in the garden, allowing me to catch up with the comma that Dad had seen there a few days before - a garden tick and my first ever in Durham, I think.

 After a while it was time to head out to one of my favourite spots - and one of my first ever patches, I guess, Brasside pond. Brasside delivered the expected wildfowl, and a few less expected wildfowl in the form of 2 goldeneye and this group of 7 whooper swans. 

There was also a flock over 130 curlew in the back fields, calling willow tit, my first singing blackcap of the year, and a pair of displaying great crested grebes, that kept Claire and I entertained for a good half an hour at least.