Daily visits through the week bore little fruit with a few Curlew, the Knot and a few Little Ringed Plovers being the only birds of note. Despite the warm weather not a single
hirundine was noted. Early morning fog was persistent presumably preventing any passing birds from actually seeing the lakes.
I only had an hour to spare on Saturday but with light rain and a north easterly breeze the conditions looked promising. Almost as soon as the rain got heavier things began to happen, an adult Kittiwake dropped in and the first Swallow of the year came out of the shower with a single Sand Martin for company.
As the rain cleared the assembled gulls rose hurriedly and I scanned the air expecting a raptor - probably a Peregrine. Picking up a distant silhouette with the naked eye I was stunned when I realised this was no Peregrine but a Red Kite a new bird for the patch and still fairly uncommon in the low parts of the Sheffield area. It circled round for ten minutes before heading south. A few minutes later Kev rang me to say it was passing over nearby RVCP. A nice end to a fairly quiet March, taking the self-found patch year to 98.
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