Water birds

The weather has stayed cold - much colder than May should be somehow. Last Saturday night (1st May) there was a thunderstorm followed by heavy rain with some parts getting about an inch of rain. Yet by Thursday this week, the soil seemed very dry again. Lat night we had more rain followed by a drizzly day today with outbreaks of more steady rain. So all good news for watering the garden, but not so good for getting into it and weeding.

This morning I stood by the river talking to a couple I know, when one of them told me they could hear a kingfisher call. I am not sure I heard it clearly - and will look it up on the RSPB site. But she told me, as others have, that you often see the kingfisher after hearing it, and indeed, a little while later we saw a bright blue flash as a kingfisher crossed the river into a tree on the other side. We didn't see any more, though we did see a little egret a little while later - the first, I think, that I have seen this year.

Back home in the wet garden the woodpigeon is sitting tight on her nest - and presumably her eggs. It's hard to see a proper nest in the tree and it is hard to get a good photograph from ground level. Nevertheless I have included it anyway.