First one then three

I managed two visits to the patch today. This morning there wasn't anything spectacular (except the Ibis I suppose), and my first Swallow of the year was just off-patch, cruising over a field near Horse Pool (which is between Collingham Pits and Langford Lowfields). The pool itself held about thirty clumps of frogspawn, although it all looked dead, with the jelly, and in some cases the nucleus, having turned white.

This afternoon, another wander came up with the goods, with 3 Swallows over the northern side of Ferry Lane Lake. I then checked Langford Marsh (a pond near the vicarage at Langford Crossing), coming across another 10 clumps of dead-looking white frogspawn; I'm not sure what's going on here...

Swallow