in Cornwall recently, hoopoes, those charismatic European birds were popping up all over the place.

Camouflaged men and women with longer and longer lenses dashed about and swapped intelligence, clicked and whirred and punched the air in triumph, then moved on to hunt the elusive blue headed wagtail and the booted eagle!

Last autumn we got to know the lonely spoonbill that hung around feeding in the Hayle estuary and associated pools.

How pleased we are to find that this spring he has a friend.

What is this? A dodgy duck on the boating lake in Newquay. A rare long tailed duck, a lonely female. When the weather gets better she’ll head out to sea to find a mate.

We saw this male in Norfolk — Holme Dunes, near Thornham, last year.

At Slimbridge, in Gloucestershire, we saw white fronted geese, a Ross’s goose and lots of barnacle geese.

Thanks to Bill for the pictures of the spoonbills, hoopoe and female sea duck. This is my best duck!

Above is a male red-breasted merganser, also seen at Slimbridge. Most of the swans have gone now, the Bewicks and the whoopers, gone back up to the Arctic to breed.