Today I walked along the Madrid River (the Manzanares) where the authorities have created an excellent linear park. Interesting birds on and around the river consisted of Grey Heron, Cormorant, Egyptian Goose, Little Egret and Crag Martin.

Today started with nest-building Monk Parakeets, a singing Serin and a chirrupping Tree Sparrow outside Universidad Rey Juan Carlos metro station. 

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I went back to see the Fritillaries in Queen's Park today, but there has been no change since Monday. The buds of the Pear trees at the Langside Hall gate have begun to burst. It will be interesting to observe the annual cycle of a species I am mostly unfamiliar with.

The windy weather at Lochwinnoch this morning discouraged some of the smaller birds from venturing out and consquently my bird list was a modest thirty. However this included a single Redshank, ten Common Gulls, 28 Whooper Swans, a pair of Reed Buntings and courtship displays from Great Crested Grebe and Black-headed Gull. 

The damp weather returned today but I was cheered up by the first flowers on the Fritillaries in the Moira Jones Memorial Garden in Queen's Park. Flowering Coltsfoot and a big Buff-tailed Bumblebee were other, more modest highlights.

Grey Wagtail was probably my bird of the day with one at my WeBS site in Greenock and two on the roof of the tenements across the road from our house.