When I opened up the Tern hide this morning I was greeted by the sight of a pair of garganey feeding just to the right of the hide. It is always a treat to see these small ducks, our only duck species that visits for the summer having wintered in Africa. They used to be called "Cricket teal" after the call of the drake, or "Summer teal" because they are about the size of a teal and come here for the summer.

The only other notable birds was a another common tern - at present they seem to be adding one a day.

Later in the morning I was amazed to hear that there were now seven garganey on Ibsley Water, some years we don't even record a single one, clearly there had been a significant arrival of these ducks.

It has been much more spring-like in the last two days and there have been lots of butterflies seen, including brimstone, peacock, small tortoiseshell and comma in some numbers. Adder have been spotting basking by the paths north of Ellingham Drove and the great tit are nest building in earnest. Perhaps spring has finally arrived.