Hard going.

Beautiful weather over the weekend but still cold with a northerly wind effectively stopping most of the migrant birds reaching our area. A few have made it through and I saw my first Swallows of the year over Sandfield golf course Friday afternoon whilst battering a little white ball round a few holes with Mrs W.

Saturdays trip to Hilbre coincided with a visit from a big RSPB group and even though there were few migrants around we managed to show them a Willow Warbler and Linnet 'in the hand'.

Highlight of the days birding was the large number of Sandwich Terns offshore - at least 200 birds moved though and amongst them were the first Common Terns of the year.

Linnets are also back on territory and the males are looking pretty dapper in their breeding plumage.