Harriers...

I spent a couple of hours at Blacktoft Sands, an RSPB reserve south of the Humber. If February was unrealistically warm, March has reverted to something more normal. I sat in a hide for the duration of a violent hailstorm; it only lasted a couple of minutes, but for those two minutes I thought the roof would come off. There were plenty of ducks on the flashes: wigeon, teal, tufted duck, pochard, gadwall, shoveler, shelduck and mallard, plus half a dozen little grebes. I watched marsh harries in display flight, trying to cope with the strong winds. The sky was big, and constantly changing: it was a better day for cloud-spotting, perhaps, than for bird-watching. Then, as I left, frozen to the bone, a flock of twenty black-tailed godwits flew in.

Licensed last week: the Huddersfield Canal at Uppermill, West Yorkshire...