April without the showers Paul Ritchie

​We've experienced a significantly drier-than-usual spring. Broadly speaking the weather was milder during April, although we have had a couple of late frosts and a few blustery days but not so many showers. I added 3 more species to my list of wild bird species with Moorhen calling from the River Mole on the riparian walk and a Serin heard and seen in the large sallow growing in our ancient hedgerow. The highlight however, was hearing and seeing a Gray Wagtail (left) at our garden pond, which I recently cut back some of the over-mature vegetation to reveal open water making it more attractive to aquatic insect species such as pond skaters, diving beetles and midges.

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The finches are well represented in my records with Chaffinch, Linnet, Redpoll, Goldfinch, Greenfinch, Siskin and Serin all being sighted and recorded across a range of habitats in the 4Bs area. I chose the Goldfinch (Carduelis carduelis) as my bird of the month (right), not just because it’s such a beautiful bird to photograph and draw but also it exemplifies the value of gardening for wildlife. We do not dead-head our wildflowers and other plants at the end of the flowering season but let them form seedheads. As a consequence, we get regular visits from feeding goldfinch over winter and early spring.

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