It was a day of firsts for this year; the first chiffchaff I have heard this spring was in the copse by the lake and lesser celandine were out on the grassy towpath:

There was also the first family of Egyptian geese with 6 goslings, the mother sitting close by while dad stood guard:

As I was leaving, a crow was trying it's best to grab a youngster, with the male Egyptian chasing it off. I don't think it will be long before the numbers diminish as the crows are relentless.

The lake was also busy with the usual mallards who looked lovely in the sunshine:

Greylag geese joined the usual residents today:

And the Canada Geese were mainly on the shoreline grazing:

In the woods, the honeybees were busy on the willow blossom, most of them laden down with pollen. A bumblebee was also out and about in the sunshine and in the same area, tree-creepers were squeaking to each other. It's a good area for them to nest with lots of dead tree stumps and branches, so I will look for signs of them soon.

Quite a few long-tailed tits were flitting around the woodland but were too far up in the trees for a decent picture: