A spring day at Oak Road playing fields

It is hard to believe it is just March. The bare trees remind you that we were deep in winter a month or so ago, with the land covered in snow and blasted by icy winds. Oak Road was glorious today. There was a cacophony of singing birds, and amongst them, the repetitive sound of the Chiffchaff stood out. Two males replied to each other, the first I have heard this year. Crows and Blue tits were collecting lining material for their nests.
 A Great Spotted Woodpecker had found a hollow trunk in the car park and its drumming sound was incredible.
By contrast, in the lake things were much more subdued. There were only a few gulls and no mallards, a pair of Mute Swans and a handful of irascible Coots, getting very territorial. Two of them swirled all puffed up with heads down, in front of each other, presumably marking the limits of their territories.
 I was able to spot a few Reed Buntings on the reedbeds by the lake.
A couple of butterflies flew by, possible Small Tortoiseshells. Many bumblebees were nest searching or feeding on the willows.

 A view of the River Hull. The tide was coming in.

 The pair of Mute Swans

 Reed Bunting on willow

 Swirling Coots

Singing Chiffchaff high up on a plane tree

Bird list

1. Black-headed Gull 
2. Blackbird 
3. Blue Tit 
4. Carrion Crow 
5. Chaffinch 
6. Chiffchaff 
7. Collared Dove 
8. Coot 
9. Dunnock 
10. Goldfinch 
11. Great Black-backed Gull 
12. Great Spotted Woodpecker 
13. Great Tit 
14. Greenfinch 
15. Herring Gull 
16. House Sparrow 
17. Lesser Black-backed Gull 
18. Long-tailed Tit 
19. Magpie 
20. Mallard 
21. Mistle Thrush 
22. Moorhen 
23. Mute Swan 
24. Reed Bunting 
25. Robin 
26. Song Thrush 
27. Starling 
28. Woodpigeon 
29. Wren