It's official: with the return of the longtails, spring is here.

Self-professed longtail enthusiast Dennis Whitehead spotted two longtails over the water off his Southcourt Avenue, Paget home, at eight o'clock Sunday morning.

"I guess they call them the scouts," he said. "They were coming to scout things out.

"They have nests down here - they come back every year."

In fact, Mr. Whitehead himself goes down to the nests and cleans them out every year, putting new sand in and so on.

"I'm a longtail nut," he said. "Somebody's got to do it."