Strange Times

Well it's been a while since my last post and a lot has happened hasn't it! And although we have been birding a couple of times before lockdown, I just don't seem to have had the time or inclination to post anything. But I thought I would have a little catch up.

Back on the 2nd of March we made a visit to Upton Warren for a couple of hours on the way to an appointment in Droitwich, we only visited the Moors as we felt we didn't have time to do both sides of the reserve. There was nothing out of the ordinary but we had a nice time just the same, the priority being watching the birds.
Great Spotted Woodpecker,

 Shoveler

 and one of the seven Little Egrets showing.

A total of 36 species were seen, but probably the best was watching the 'courting' behaviour of the Shelduck, I don't think we had ever really seen this before. It was great watching the males trying to assert their dominance and keep other males away from their prospective partners.

Or other bit of birding was down at RSPB Rainham Marshes in Essex, we had been down to London for a family event over a weekend and before heading home on the Monday we dropped into the reserve, it only added about 20 minutes to our overall journey time. Unfortunately Tina had damaged the soft tissue in her knee not long before we went and couldn't walk too far, so we stayed pretty close to the visitor centre.
The highlight for the afternoon were a couple of pairs of Pintail our first sightings of those for this year, sadly I didn't get any decent photos of them, so you will have to so with;
Lapwing,

 Redshank,

 Gadwall,

 Snipe,

 and a very vocal Dunnock.

Our short visit (as we had a long drive home) resulted in 37 species from just around the visitor centre. We did try and find the reported Firecrest near the children's play area in the wooded area near the visitor centre, but no luck!

We did also manage a walk around Haden Hill Park before the full lockdown and managed Treecreeper and Willow Warbler apart from the usual 'garden' birds.

So now with the distancing measure in place, we are limited to garden bird watching, which sad to say isn't proving very fruitful, so far we have only had Blue Tit, Great Tit, Coal Tit, Starling, Blackbird, Dunnock, House Sparrow, Robin, Magpie and Woodpigeon. With flyovers by a couple of Buzzards, a Sparrowhawk, Crows and Lesser Black-backed Gulls.

We have walked from the house down to the canal for our 60 minutes of exercise, but as yet that has only added Coot, Moorhen, Mallard, Canada Goose and Long-tailed Tit.

Our total for the month stands at 56, that won't change unless something special turns up in the garden today, White-tailed Eagle up from the Isle of Wight would be nice! 😂 that's how it will finish.

TTFN