It was a locked in lockdown day due to heavy rain for most of the day.
Since I started writing this blog in mid-March, the weather has been amazing with the vast majority of days being warm and sunny with bright blue skies. It has been truly spring-like with an appropriate response from the wildlife. I think I am right in saying that today was the first day of rain in around 6 weeks.
With regard to birds, I only managed to record 1 Carrion Crow, 1 Herring Gull, a few Magpies and a few Woodpigeons. A male Blackbird singing sporadically throughout the day helped to brighten the mood.
I spent the day catching up on various "indoor" things.
I also reflected on the fact that 3 months have passed since my trip to the Republic of Ireland (see here) and how we are all now find ourselves in a very different place in such a short time.
In addition, I considered how fortunate I am to have 3 sites so close to home which I can walk to and continue to enjoy wildlife watching and photography. I have learnt so much about each of them and appreciated the "common stuff" and the "little stuff" which I would otherwise have missed or overlooked.
In my second post on this blog (see here), I wrote about a typical year of wildlife watching. Like the majority of birders, I keep a UK annual list and during a typical calendar year, I usually manage to record between 210 and 230 species. At the time of creating this blog, my 2020 year to date total was 144 species following some very successful New Year and winter birding but in advance of the spring migration and arrival of summer migrants.
At the close of 2020, I am going to be a long way off even 200 species for the year for 2 reasons:
Firstly, I have missed or will miss those species for which the spring and early summer period is the only or the best chance of seeing them. Restrictions on travel mean that I will not be able to visit my usual sites in Essex and wider East Anglia to see them.
Secondly, and again related to travel restrictions, I will not be able to undertake my regular annual trips to Wales and the Scottish Highlands to see species which do not occur in Essex or only do so rarely on passage migration.
Nonetheless, my 3 local sites plus my lockdown window have produced 5 welcome additions to my UK 2020 year list:
Blackcap in the area around St. Nicholas Church 0n 26th March 2020
Grey Wagtail at Gloucester Park on 19th April 2020
Lesser Whitethroat at Noak Bridge Nature Reserve on 24th April 2020
Common Tern at Gloucester Park on 26th April 2020
Swift from my lockdown window on 27th April 2020
If I hadn't already had the amazing sight of a Swallow at Abberton Reservoir on New Years Day, the first of 2020 for this species would also have been from my lockdown window on 19th April 2020.
💚🦆
🦉 🌼 🌳💚
Stay safe, stay well, stay strong, stay connected with nature
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