Swift and Whitethroat

Phoning  news of the Emperor through to Andy Schofield, he mentioned in passing that he had a Swift over the old heath earlier in the day. This is a remarkably early arrival for Bedfordshire - since 2000 the first have been seen between 16th - 25th April. I did ask if he was sure it wasn't a Pallid...

And then this morning, a singing [Common] Whitethroat was on the new heath as I once again searched in vain for Woodlarks. Remarkably, this was also Bedfordshire's earliest of the millenium.

The Lodge list moves to 109.

Whitethroat on 6 April!

Even easier for The Lodgers to get back than Cuckoo will be for us, but a Whitethroat on 6 April?! Madness!

It sang quietly, out of sight, for me 3 times at lunchtime today; I was going to let this one go (I hadn't definitely ruled out some mega Sylvia!) but an email from Chris Gregory let us know that he'd gone a step further by actually managing to clap eyes on it, in the same area. No Subalp then, but the earliest for Norfolk this year (per BirdGuides) - seems this Challenge is throwing up some interesting migrant dates!

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