April started with the weather showing signs of improvement, with the Easter weekend being particularly pleasant, and ideal for safaris. However, with no Southerly winds to report, returning migrant birds were still very thin on the ground.
Despite the lack of migrants, day-lists of birds started to creep up into the mid 50's, with day-lists of mammals regularly reaching 7 or 8.
My personal favourite sighting of early April,s outings had to be the return to her nest of a female Osprey - to be joined a day later by a male who soon earned his conjugal rights by bringing her regular fish deliveries!
Another highlight was a close-up fly -past by a dashing male Merlin with a small bird clutched in his claws, which interupted our viewing of the (still mainly white) Mountain Hares in a beautiful mountain glen.
The Slavonian Grebe was seen to have transformed from it's uninspiring black and white Winter colours into it,s beautiful summer plumage with those amazing gold ear tufts seemingly glowing in the sunshine.
Most of the other "local specialities" continued to show well and I think it' fair to say that my safari customers went away very happy with what they had seen , if a little tired maybe, after the 5am starts!
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