Any sightings yet? I keep a record & for two years they arrived here (South Germany) on exactly the same date, 22nd April (in 2 days time).
I have 8 martin's nests on the front of my house all vacant & ready.
I am aware that migratory birds appear to be late this year, from cuckoos on the Iberian peninsula to meadow and wading birds in Iceland. The lag seems to be of the order of 7-14 days, depending on place and species.
Without doubt I saw 3 a couple of weeks ago, they circled my garden and I saw them clearly but haven't seen them since. It was uncharacteristically early.
I saw the first hedgehogs in my garden a year ago today.
Nothing yet this year and with the traffic nose to tail and doubt I will.
I've not see any swifts or swallows yet either.
Our curlews are in full voice, again a little later than usual but so far the swallows have not returned to the barn to nest. Each year I have baby swallows sat on my fence above the kitchen window, their parents teaching them to fly but still feeding them. Last year they had two hatchings.
Swallows seen here on the Preselis near Hermon about 2 weeks ago. I didn't see them myself but they did get a mention in the Guardian letters !
Our cuckoo(s) are usually very punctual, arriving on the 14th/15th April every year. How do they do that ?
And the hedgehogs at full volume mating in the garden! My goodness they make a noise (although, I cannot imagine mating with anything that prickly to be entirely pleasant).
"And the hedgehogs at full volume mating in the garden! My goodness they make a noise (although, I cannot imagine mating with anything that prickly to be entirely pleasant)."
As the old joke goes - How do hedgehogs make love? Answer - very carefully.