On every tree there sits a bird ....

... and a lot of them are singing a song of love, but not all.  One day we spotted a large shape half-hidden among branches high in the big ash tree, sitting silently and fairly still, presumably just resting.  All we could make out was the grey face and hooked bill of a predator, a pair of yellow feet and the end of an untidy-looking tail.  It was too big for a sparrowhawk, and it wasn't streamlined enough; also the other birds would have hidden from a sparrowhawk, whereas they didn't seem too bothered about this visitor (indeed a goldfinch moved closer in to get a good look).  We concluded that it was a buzzard, possibly a young bird; but when it finally took off there were the long, pointed wings and forked tail - a red kite.  It's the first time we've seen one in a tree.  They take their prey on the ground, so the other birds were reasonably safe while they were perched in a tree.

At the other end of the size scale, a goldcrest has been twittering in the hazel trees a couple of times; and another welcome arrival was a song thrush.  A little less welcome is the attention paid by the bullfinches to the plum tree; a pair were also feeding on the winter honeysuckle again, which matters less as the flowers will peter out soon.  The second butterfly of the year also appeared: a comma, sunning itself in the veg plot.  Lots of bees of various types, which is encouraging; I must be doing something right.

Daffs, pulmonaria and wallflowers

A little posy of violets

The weather has brought a couple of lovely days, with quite warm sunshine; I managed lunch on the garden bench one day, very comfortably and without a jacket.  It has now turned chillier and windier, but still more April than March.  The daffodils are out, and there's even a Silver Parrot tulip in bud in one of the pots.  The pulmonaria continues to do well; I cut some today with a few small daffodils and some red wallflowers (rather a riotous colour scheme, but one to brighten up dull days).   I've been catching up with garden jobs, belatedly finishing the pruning of the big apple tree (balancing on the top of a ladder with the loppers isn't my favourite job), ditto of the buddleja and disposing of all the prunings (lots of beanpoles for later in the year), tying in the autumn broad beans and sowing the spring ones, potting on the aubergines and chillies and sowing the tomato seeds.  The greenhouse bubblewrap is starting to fall off - the holes that the studs go through have become too big so I don't think I'll get another year out of the stuff - but the warmer weather is making it rather redundant now; I've had the door and vents open a few times, and switched the heater off (I hope I don't regret that).  The first dahlias ('Bishop of Auckland') have shoots coming through; today I also potted up 'Ambition', which was such a dauntingly large clump of tubers that I hadn't tackled it before, and I had to cut it in two to fit it into the pots, so I hope it doesn't object too much. We'll see!