Week 16 - 12 - 18 April 2026 (House Martin)

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Five trips out around the patch this week, with some wonderful weather to enjoy. I got out around Cranbrook Country Park and the Rockbeare part of the patch twice, and visited Percy Wakely Wood with my young daughter for the first time in a month of so.

Percy Wakely Wood looking fantastic as the spring colours arrive

Along the theme of summer arrivals, I clocked my first Western House Martins of 2026, with an at least 12 strong group picking off insects above Surface Drainage Basin Number 5 (aka the big lake) in the Great Meadow. This was the only time and location I saw them on the patch this week, but the bright white rumps, and jittery flight are unmistakeable. So we now sit on 55 species for the patch this year.

There was not much else to write home about, and my only trip out this week was down to Marsh Barton to get some new tyres, which afforded me 20 mins to nip along the Exeter Ship Canal to Trews Weir and back. Plenty of gulls, a few Cormorants, but not much of interest there either.

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