St Andrews Park

A beautiful sunny morning in the park and some suitably spring-like bird activity observed! The full list as follows:
Mistle Thrush - a nest was located (see Simon's photo) and at least one youngster was seen. Parent birds nearby. Excellent stuff!
Coal Tit - 1 in song
Blue Tit - a few heard and seen
Great Tit - several heard
Wren - heard several times
Robin - 1 or 2
Blackbird - several birds seen
Magpie - 1 or 2
Carrion Crow - a few
Goldfinch - still lots of birds singing from the trees
Collared Dove - 1 or 2 heard
Woodpigeon - a few
House Sparrow - a few around mainly in adjacent gardens
Jay - we watched a couple behind the pond trying to collect nesting material by breaking off twigs

Mistle Thrush and nest

 There was a mystery fish in the pond - looked a bit like a stickleback! Also a couple of Speckled Wood butterflies in the park - my first of the year.

Speckled Wood

Today I did my BTO Breeding Bird Survey around the patch and the numbers of each species are shown below. Notable are the Willow Warblers, with 3 singing in Montpelier Park and another at Albany Green!

Lesser Black-backed Gull 5 Herring Gull 1 Feral Pigeon 14 Woodpigeon 12 Collared Dove 6 Magpie 2 Carrion Crow 6 Blue Tit 4 Great Tit 7 Coal Tit 2 Willow Warbler 4 Blackcap 1 Wren 6 Starling 1 Blackbird 13 Robin 5 Dunnock 6 House Sparrow 15 Goldfinch 7 At the top of St Andrews Road there was a Gwynne's Mining Bee Andrena bicolor basking on a leaf. I think it's the first I've ever seen, so a new record for the patch. Andrena bicolor