M25...

I made an early start this morning, hoping to negotiate the north-west quadrant of the M25 - London’s orbital car park - before the worst of the traffic. But even at 6.30am it was gridlocked. There may have been an accident, or, God forbid, it may be like this every morning.

Birds seen (or heard) in East Anglia these past three weeks: great grested grebe, little grebe, fulmar, cormorant, heron, little egret, bittern, mute swan, pink-footed goose, brent goose, canada goose, shelduck, mallard, gargany, gadwall, pochard, shoveler, tufted duck, teal, kite, buzzard, marsh harrier, kestrel, hobby, red-legged partridge, pheasant, moorhen, coot, avocet, oystercatcher, ringed plover, little ringed plover, grey plover, turnstone, lapwing, dunlin, knot, redshank, common sandpiper, curlew, bar-tailed godwit, black-headed gull, herring gull, lesser black-backed gull, greater black-backed gull, common gull, kittiwake, sandwich tern, arctic tern, little tern, woodpigeon, stock dove, collared dove, cuckoo, swift, green woodpecker, great spotted woodpecker, kingfisher, skylark, swallow, house martin, sand martin, meadow pipit, pied wagtail, dunnock, reed warbler, sedge warbler, cetti’s warbler, whitethroat, blackcap, dartford warbler, willow warbler, chiffchaff, garden warbler, goldcrest, stonechat, wheatear, robin, nightingale, blackbird, song thrush, mistle thrush, bearded tit, great tit, blue tit, marsh tit, long-tailed tit, wren, yellowhammer, reed bunting, chaffinch, goldfinch, greenfinch, linnet, house sparrow, starling, jay, magpie, rook, carrion crow, jackdaw (101).

Dartford warbler, Cetti's Warbler and little ringed plover are new species for me, and the gap between hearing nightingales this spring and the previous occasion is - gulp - fifty years...

Cow and calf, Lakenheath...