Bluebells at dusk

A warm, sunny spring day, mostly spent outside. In the morning I went to Swaddywell to meet with with some of my co-volunteers from the Langdyke Trust and Tobias Menely, a professor of English Literature at the University of California, who's currently on sabbatical. He's visiting our area to research John Clare, and hear about initiatives to create wildlife rich habitats across the John Clare Countryside. Rich and varied discussions about the concepts of wilderness, the history of human intervention that has led to the habitats we value, and what the future may look like for our special part of the world continued over coffee...

While we were at Swaddywell we were serenaded by a very noisy Grasshopper Warbler, and at the cafe I saw my first Swallows of the summer. Not content with those firsts, I headed out again in the evening to see if I could hear any Nightingales at Castor Hanglands. I was lucky and heard one not long after I'd arrived, though I had the impression that, having only reached our shores in the last day or so, it was still tuning up and it'll be another week or so before their singing develops. 
I had the reserve pretty much to myself - as dusk fell the Bluebells and Wood Anemones  faded into the gloaming among the gnarled oaks at the southern end of the reserve. 

My final wildlife events of the day were both garden based - the first bat of the year flew over just after sunset. And just before bed I had a walk round the garden with a torch and counted fifty Common Toads and about eight Smooth Newts in the ponds. The warmer weather has really bought the amphibians out.