The Birds!

I didn't go out today looking for birds, but somehow they kept cropping up throughout the day. 
First this morning a handsome male blackbird strutting around on the lawn with his tail feathers cocked high. Another the same on the lawn next door. 
Next, in the birch trees at the bottom of the garden a noisy great tit. It didn't fly away but constantly moved around the lower branches a few feet from where I was standing, constantly watching me from different angles. Presumably a nest somewhere near, but unseen. 
Then on the pond at Saltram house this female red-crested pochard. She was here last year but this was the first time I have seen her this year, if it is the same bird. 
This afternoon we arrived home to the distant rumble of thunder and I saw 3 swifts overhead. 
Finally, on route to the  shop I saw a peregrine falcon on the top of a nearby telecommunications mast.