As this year's Rarities Blog opens for business, we are locked into surprisingly low temperatures for April. A high pressure system locked in place over Britain is dragging cold air all the way down from the Arctic and putting a hold on expected levels of migration. Things a re trickling through however and the first rarity of the year has been logged. First seen on Skokholm, then Skomer and a couple of mainland sites, an Alpine Swift must have been an impressive sight for those lucky enough to bump into it. One of the commonest birds not on my find list, I'm very jealous.
