Well, little bit of good news after all the bad weather, The Cuckoo's are back! Heard the first one today (thought I heard it on Tue but wasn't certain) so, he's made it back again. Well done little bird.

Surely you mean, "during this break in the bad weather."

I am waiting to get my first confirmed sight of our House Martins, I think I might have glimpsed the odd one. But they should be back within the next week or so. We have an artificial next box, so it means they can usually get a minimum of two broods each summer, as they have no nest buliding required if they move in quick enough.

Mind personally speaking what I am really waiting for is the return of the Swifts, as that is one of the things that helps lift my SAD. As you know Spring/Summer is here when you hear them screaming! I just love the sound that they make.

Mother Nature at its best!

I wonder how long until the next hosepipe ban.

If you like the sound of birds screaming, come round to ours and listen to the wife when she finds out I've been in her purse again.

Not a bird I can warm to, with its parasitic lifecycle, I'm afraid.

Still talking about my wife I see!

But it is great to have the sun and warmer weather, it's really lifted my spirits. I've been told the house martins are back but haven't seen them yet - I usually see them down on the Crofton reservoir, and all along the canal tow path is good for cuckcoos but I've yet to hear one of those either. I do have a duck nesting in my compost heap though.

Great Shefford, opp the animal shelter is a temporary lake, hundreds of martins feeding there last weekend.

You can also tell by the horny male pheasants chasing anything that moves.

Both my ponds are hostnig a lot of frog spawn!!

Strafin, they are finally using the top pond, so the new colony is doing well!

Brilliant!

Quick NTC you can do him for not having a poultry license.

I heard a cuckoo today so now it really does feel like spring.

Oh yeah, and I've been bitten by a horse fly, so Spring is definitely here.

I saw a bumble bee.

I seen a dragon fly...

We've also had the bats return, and tried out a bat detector that I bought for my wife's birthday. Great fun attempting to identify them!

The ravens in Penwood were having a right conversation this morning. One of them was making a "pling" sound like it was ringing a bell - never heard that before.

You old romantic you!

One of the most obvious signs for the arrival of spring are sex-starved myopic pheasants in the road.

Or the remains of...

I heard a nightingale singing on Greenham Common this morning. And pull the first tick of the year off Kettle.

Nasty little buggers!

Assume you mean ticks, not nightingales

Also hard to remove without leaving the mouth parts behind, which can cause infection (I expect you know there are special tools available).

They unwind anti-clockwise - once you understand that they're not too difficult to remove. But they still carry some nasty diseases - my Holly got tic pyemia and was quite unwell. Frontline is the thing as it kill the ticks before they can do much harm.

Good advice, particularly if kept topped up. Our Collie caught a similarly distressing dose a while back.

Although I have seen a few House Martins flying around now for about a fortnight, the pair that nests in the artificial nest box we put up, are now back and using the next box!

Just waiting on hearing the first of the Swifts now, they should not be too far off.

I caught my first glimpse of some Swifts today, well I heard them first and saw 2 or 3 of them harassing a Red Kite!