Thank you, Shakira! Hopefully it’s a case of they just haven’t got to you yet, though any day now.

The blackcap and chiffchaff; to hear their songs coincide, is to feel properly nestled in spring.

A willow warbler utters his breathy & wistful descending phrase amidst the apple blossom: delicate, delectable.

There’s a blackbird in full, rich, carefree song; in classic pose with tail cocked. Cradled by a greening oak, both set against the clearest forget-me-not sky. It’s pretty much a perfect moment.

Thank you, Pam! If you’re able to get out and about locally and visit some scrubland or field hedgerows, particularly “untidy” lengths, you should hear/see one or two.

Singing: blackbird, blackcap, chaffinch, chiffchaff, dunnock, goldcrest, great tit, robin, skylark, song thrush, whitethroat, willow warbler, wren.

Flowering: bluebell, celandine, cowslip, primrose, stitchwort.

The same path 2 months ago: really just the (lovely) sound & sight of winter thrushes.

They are spring arrivals in the UK, wintering south of the Sahara.

Today — the year’s first whitethroat!
Something I wrote about this sweet songbird:

in the song
or graceful flight
by beauty
to the ear & eye…

light in times of dark
strength in moments of weakness
birds — my remedy

From housemartinconservation.com

The latitude-crossing martins have this
morning arrived back at my parents’ house! I love their warm conversational chittering that reflects off the stonework, & drifts through windows ajar. Relieved & thankful; having the company of these sweet & sunny birds each year (for now) enriches my world.

Yes! She was also underweight at the point of adoption.

Thank you!

Maisie, tasting the fresh Powysian air.

In the gully behind, there survives a fragment of rare temperate rainforest.

That’s a lovely image. It’s great to have you here on Bluesky, Nick.

In the garden just now were two beautiful songsters, side by side, having a late bathe in the shallows of the wildlife pond: a blackcap & song thrush. The small joy & gratification!

Congratulations!
(Beautiful cover.)

Me too.

The first returning swallows! — a moment of stop-still, heart-glowing beauty.

A buzzard’s realm.

There are some things I can’t go without. Birds and trees are two of those things.

buzzards —

to me
are beautiful
accessible
golden eagles
of pocket size

telegraph pole perched
or soaring shallow “v”
my usual welcome
to the west country

A burbling clear hillside runnel; a trickle of opposite-leaved golden saxifrage.

Today I happened to meet a huge, magnificent, twisted & spreading English oak. Budding beautifully. Hundreds of years old. (I decided not to photograph — scale & splendour would not have been truly captured.) This tree brightened my day, & made me feel a little better about things.

Indeed.
No, I didn’t know that poem — thank you.

Before long, with good fortune, swifts will return to the church a stone’s throw from my home. I’ve loved these birds since I was a child of nine years old, when I saw my first—and then right away learnt of their remarkable lives. With each passing year, somehow that love (and yearning) still grows.

Thank you!

Thanks so much for this, Andrew. Your support is always highly appreciated.

Many thanks for that, it’s greatly appreciated.

Thanks so much!