Lockdown 3.

 It was always going to happen. This up and down roller coaster of COVID hasn't gone away, yet the way some people act, it would seem it had.

Within an hour of Boris's speech last night Twitter was awash with comments from birders making caveats to continue what they do, unabated. That's the problem with the Government rules, they are open to much ambiguous interpretation.  

I am waiting to see what new definition the words 'stay local for exercise' will get from the birding community?  

Writing this, above, looks as if I am having a 'holier than thou' approach, but genuinely I'm not. What would I do if someone turned up a mega county bird 30 miles along the coast? I'm sure I would be rolling out my own justifications too, but I certainly wont be getting into the car and driving out for a year tick.

For me, lockdown isn't as bad as it is for some. I don't tend to venture very far or very often either so this period will be little different.

But, just so I can interpret these to suit myself here are the 5th January Government Rules - 

Exercising and meeting other people

You should minimise time spent outside your home. 

It is against the law to meet socially with family or friends unless they are part of your household or support bubble. You can only leave your home to exercise, and not for the purpose of recreation or leisure (e.g. a picnic or a social meeting). This should be limited to once per day, and you should not travel outside your local area.

[Note - So many definitions available in this one sentence] 

You can exercise in a public outdoor place:

• by yourself
• with the people you live with
• with your support bubble (if you are legally permitted to form one)
• in a childcare bubble where providing childcare
• or, when on your own, with 1 person from another household

Public outdoor places include:

• parks, beaches, countryside accessible to the public, forests
• public gardens (whether or not you pay to enter them)
• the grounds of a heritage site
• playgrounds

Outdoor sports venues, including tennis courts, golf courses and swimming pools, must close.

When around other people, stay 2 metres apart from anyone not in your household - meaning the people you live with - or your support bubble. Where this is not possible, stay 1 metre apart with extra precautions (e.g. wearing a face covering).

You must wear a face covering in many indoor settings, such as shops or places of worship where these remain open, and on public transport, unless you are exempt. This is the law. 

Travel

You must not leave your home unless you have a reasonable excuse (for example, for work or education purposes). If you need to travel you should stay local – meaning avoiding travelling outside of your village, town or the part of a city where you live – and look to reduce the number of journeys you make overall. The list of reasons you can leave your home and area include, but are not limited to:

• work, where you cannot reasonably work from home
• accessing education and for caring responsibilities
• visiting those in your support bubble – or your childcare bubble for childcare
• visiting hospital, GP and other medical appointments or visits where you have had an accident or are concerned about your health
• buying goods or services that you need, but this should be within your local area wherever possible
• outdoor exercise. This should be done locally wherever possible, but you can travel a short distance within your area to do so if necessary (for example, to access an open space)
• attending the care and exercise of an animal, or veterinary services

If you need to travel, walk or cycle where possible, and plan ahead and avoid busy times and routes on public transport. This will allow you to practice social distancing while you travel.

Avoid car sharing with anyone from outside your household or your support bubble.

So now we know. 

What ever version you take on board, try to think of the bigger picture. 

Stay safe everyone, see you at the Little Bustard, but that will be ok for me because...

Week 4. Lockdown.

As we now enter week four of the Lockdown, this must be the quietest Easter Weekend in living memory. Its like a mad vision of the future with people referring to the movie 'Contagion' as if it were some sort of documentary. I feel so lucky in that we live in a very rural area with access to our garden and views across open countryside. What it must be like to live in a flat at this time doesn't bear thinking about for me.

The fine weather over the weekend has resulted in hours sat out in the garden recording the wildlife seen, and I feel that I have even learned a little bit. For a start, here, the best times to watch are from dawn until 9am and again from 6pm until dark. Now we all kind of knew this but to have it confirmed when the mid part of the day is almost devoid of life is a good thing. Almost all new species are recorded within these periods.

In the week since my last posting a lot of spring migrants have come through here to be added on to the garden lockdown list. Personally I am only including birds seen or heard from the garden and not from my walks out with Peggy. This has encouraged some ingenuity in order to keep things ticking along.

For example, in 11 years I did not know I could seawatch from the garden!

Balanced on some boards on top of the wall near the compost dump..

Or on the ground facing up the hill and towards the coast path.

Another angle on my precarious position. I just stand up there behind the scope, on the wall.

The view NE. A Kittiwake from the cliff colony is in shot. The problem is, that bit of sea is too far out to identify anything but Gannets.

I did hit on a nice male Wheatear for the garden list though.

Since the last post, I am now on 67 species for the Lockdown period. A couple of Garden Firsts in the lot are Teal calling over in the dark and 54 Gannets N this morning from the seawatch of about 10 minutes. Also included are Swallow, House Martin, Blackcap, Willow Warbler, Fieldfare, Brambling, Siskin, LBBG, Common Gull, Kittiwake, Nuthatch, Barn Owl and Wheatear. I think I will post a full list as I get my counts and list numbers mixed up...

Amongst other wildlife in the garden or from it are Brown Hare, Rabbit, Wood Mouse, Bank Vole, Hedgehog, Roe Deer and Pipistrelle . The warm spell improved the moth and butterfly numbers too..

 

Bank Vole coming to an apple left for it.

 

Small Tortoiseshell, Peacock and Small White seen.

Tree Sparrows have started nesting.

Lockdown Weekend again.

As we enter week 3 of working from home I thought an update is in order. As with last weekend apart from an odd dog walk most of the time has been spent in the gardening. I am in danger of making it too tidy! It will soon revert to its happy unkempt style as summer progresses...

Down to wildlife. Like every other birder in the UK I did fancy a Common Scoter on the garden list as many were on the move, migrating N in the darkness, only detected by call, but didn't have the commitment to sit for hours in the dark on the off chance, so I just popped out for a listen occasionally. I was out for a duck on this front, hearing only Golden Plover, Curlew, Tawny Owl and possibly Teal but cant be sure on that one.

The Nocmiggers all did well while they were in bed. I've seen some great comments on that front too. The best for me was one that said something along the lines of 'Of course you can tick it, after all you have gone to the trouble of setting the equipment up outside then listening back to it' . Mate, you have not seen or even heard that bird, you have heard a recording!

Another comment suggested that 'Observatories count them so yes you can tick them' Durrr... er no... the obs add them to the site record which is different altogether. Say, if you move into a house where the previous owner recorded 100 species before you. You wouldn't add them to your list but they would be the start of a house list because they had been recorded on that site.

Is it just me? this isn't rocket science. Imagine on a day in early May and you have a team out doing a county bird race and you are going for a new record. Just get half a dozen sets of nocmig kit borrowed, set them up at midnight on local migration hotspots etc and the next day add the species to your actual list. You will obliterate the record!

To be fair, I am quite interested in the night time stuff, but its the reaction of the people that irks. I will approach this subject again I bet...

Right enough of that, back to the real stuff.

Leveret in its form.

The adult Hare and the leveret.

Grey Partridge from our drive.

On Saturday, 31 Pink footed Geese flew N, followed later by a pair of honking Canadas. A Linnet flew south while the mammal list was quite good. We had 2 Hedgehogs, 4 Roe Deer, a Brown Hare and its leveret and a Bank Vole.

First thing on Sunday a line of 4 ducks was flying fast N. A quick glance with the bins was quite surprising with 4 imm redhead Goosanders, only my second record for the garden after a pair flew south one New Years day some years back. At the same time, a female Kestrel flew south, then later a male was out the back field. My first Peacock butterfly of the year was the only insect.

Lockdown Garden List stands at 50 now and am still missing Mistle Thrush, Siskin, Redpoll Common and Lesser black backed Gulls and most summer migrants though a single Swallow and a Willow Warbler were only a few hundred metres away when I took Peggy for her walk to the coast path this morning so they wont be long in becoming additions. Hopefully.

The Weekend

In the garden again today, but with a biting northerly blowing there were few birds and no butterflies or anything much of note really. The highlight was likely 4 Hares chasing around just over our garden wall this afternoon. More of the same tomorrow I think... Here are some garden shots to keep the blog going...

Four Clouded Drabs from last nights meagre catch showing the range of colours.