The 5 day lockdown breakout trips (part 1)

From 9 a.m. on Saturday 30th May to 9 a.m. on Thursday 4th June 2020, I had a rental car which enabled me to belatedly visit some of my traditional spring wildlife watching sites plus some new sites.

The sites that I visited were:

Essex: RSPB Wallasea Island, EWT Abberton Reservoir and EWT Wrabness

Sussex: SWT Old Lodge

Kent: NNR Stodmarsh

Gloucestershire: RSPB Nagshead plus other Forest of Dean locations

Oxfordshire: RSPB Otmoor

Suffolk: NNR Westleton Heath and RSPB Hollesley Marshes

At this time of year, early morning visits as soon after dawn as possible are most productive. Visits to and around my 3 local patch sites have usually involved being on site by 6 a.m. which isn’t too bad in terms of the nagging alarm call.

However, for the sites that I visited during the last few days, extremely early starts were needed to be on site by 6 a.m. This required leaving home at between 4:30 a.m. and 5 a.m. or 3 a.m. in the case of my visit to the Forest of Dean in Gloucestershire 😱.

This proved to be an excellent few days and I managed to record the following:

Birds: 106 species including 23 additions to my UK 2020 year list taking it to 176 species. I had hoped or even expected to see the majority of these 23 species by targeting specific sites and habitats. The year list additions were:

Bittern
Spoonbill
Mandarin
Red-crested Pochard
Hobby
Little Ringed Plover
Turtle Dove
Cuckoo
Woodlark
Sand Martin
Tree Pipit
Yellow Wagtail
Nightingale
Common Redstart
Mistle Thrush
Reed Warbler
Dartford Warbler
Garden Warbler
Wood Warbler
Willow Warbler
Spotted Flycatcher
Pied Flycatcher
Lesser Redpoll

In addition, I recorded: 

Mammals (6): Badger, Fallow Deer, Roe Deer, Brown Hare, Rabbit, Grey Squirrel

Dragonflies and damselflies (6): Norfolk Hawker, Emperor Dragonfly, Four-spotted Chaser, Broad-bodied Chaser, Azure and/or Common Blue Damselfly

Butterflies (3): Holly Blue, Red Admiral, Small Tortoiseshell

I have written a separate blog post on each of my daily trips.

💚🦆 🦉 🌼 🌳💚

Stay safe, stay well, stay strong, stay connected with nature