Spring is (of course) springing ...

​Lovely snippets and snaps coming in from all over.  Click on all the photos to enlarge and scroll through.

​Chiffchaffs, those jolly harbingers of spring as they return from mainland Europe, have been heard off Hindon Lane.  This is a lovely video-recording from CenterParcs: couldn't be much clearer who's calling!

Not just springing, but something of an excitement: a rare sighting by Abby Eaton on the lake below Wardour, of a ferruginous duck - a most handsome creature - that warranted reporting to Rare Bird Alert as well as Wiltshire Ornithological Society.  Ferruginous means containing iron oxides or rust, and some photos show the duck positively glowing, but this is what Abby saw, in case you see it too
Hopefully, after Andrew Graham's session in May, we'll all be able to do our bit recording as well.

Abby also caught this de-lightful long-tailed tit carefully preparing wool for its nest - wouldn't I just love to find that nest?!  I carry home lamb's wool I find when out walking, and put it out in my garden hoping some bird will find it useful.  

And a lovely shot of a female goosander showing off her spring finery to what maybe a rival but who doesn't look terribly impressed!

​And Debbie Carter spotted this male chaffinch on its lovely mossy perch.  Here's a recording of its song.  And the elegant collared dove - I always think of them as summery birds, but in fact they've been resident and breeding here since 1955.