Spring arrivals

Spring is in full swing here, first I had a chiffchaff, then blackcap, swallow and willow warbler, then finally sandwich tern, probably one of my favourite birds. I think I like them so much because they're the most common around where I live and you can sit on the beach and watch them fish quite close to shore at high tide. Always amazes me how they can dive from such a height into such shallow water. This was one of 3 I saw last week at the estuary between Swords and Malahide, along with a buzzard, sparrowhawk, kingfisher and adult little gull, among other things -

I also went out to Rogerstown for the first time in a while, spotting my first common blue and peacock butterflies of the year, along with a serious amount of willow warblers. I'd say I heard 20+ and spotted around 10 -