The macaws could only have come from Switzerland illegally

The swallows have returned and today I heard the cuckoo for the first time - some four weeks earlier than last year. All the trees are coming into leaf in the rolling countryside of this little corner of East Sussex and the woods are full of bluebells. The light has that extraordinary clarity where you notice individual blades of grass.

Reports of Spix's Macaws in eastern Europe and especially Kiev have come in. The macaws could only have come from Switzerland - illegally unless the Swiss authorities have been up to their tricks again. Perhaps some of them are the missing five mentioned in Tony Juniper's book. It looks as if the Russian oligarchs could have their hands on play-things other than David Beckham.