Joyful

Another glorious spring morning. I was out early at Ferry Meadows, making the most of the park before the Bank Holiday revellers appeared. All the birds were in full song, including many Blackcaps, Wrens and Song Thrushes. I recordeded several more summer migrants - Sand Martins (which nest in the purpose-built nest boxes on Lynch Lake), House Martins and Common Terns were all feeding over the lakes while a solitary Reed Warbler was singing from a stand of Common Reed.

Much of the rest of the day was spent preparing food for our Easter family get-together. We opted for a vaguely Middle Eastern theme, with lots of little dishes including a delicious tart with a butternut squash based pastry and a filling of sticky red onions, spinach, pomegranate molasses and pine nuts. Before our meal, which again was taken outside, there was our traditional Easter Egg hunt. Amazingly, this year we managed to find them all. Sadly Chris and Lizzy were unable to join us as they'd only arrived back from Vancouver in the afternoon and were feeling decidedly jet-lagged!