Thursday, April 02, 2020

Lockdown Days Nine & Ten

☁️10C ~ Wind ↘NW@6mph Wednesday 1st April 2020 ~ Overcast conditions for my entire walk today with a slight breeze from the north-west. No new arrivals overnight at Napton Reservoir but (4) Snipe were flying around the reedbed before eventually dropping in. Other highlights were a Peregrine Falcon ('lockdown' tick) which flew at height towards Napton Hill and a flock of (27) Meadow Pipits, with several more passing through overhead. There seemed to be a lot of Blackbirds around today, each one scrutinised for Ring Ouzel but sadly I had no luck.

Plenty of Meadow Pipits on the move Wednesday
I was at Napton Reservoir when news of an Osprey over Draycote Water, due north from my position, had me scanning for a good 45-minutes. Unfortunately, I didn't get lucky and thanks to Theo de Clermont, who spotted the bird for keeping me updated.

Typical Common Scoter sonograph
☀️☁️12C ~ Wind ↗SW@9mph Thursday 2nd April 2020 ~ First to report is an amazing night of the 'nocmig' (Recording Nocturnal Bird Migration) which literally, after my morning walk, took me the best part of the day to analyse. The highlights included my first Common Scoters over the marina, followed by several soundings of Wigeon. In fact, I would even claim they landed on the marina waters for a short period. Also noted over the session Teal, Lapwing, Snipe, Tawny Owl, Barn OwlMuntjac, (8) unknowns yet to be analysed and (43) Redwings, the increase in the latter likely due to the change in wind direction to a more westerly direction.

Red Kite over the marina just I returned from my walk.
My walk today began around 10am in bright sunshine, picking up a pretty worn Small Tortoiseshell butterfly in a sheltered area of the marina. However, By the time I arrived at Napton Reservoir cloud had blown in and remained for the duration of my walk. Once again there were no new spring arrivals but a single Gadwall was a grateful 'Lockdown' tick.

There were plenty of Thrushes to be found once again with (26) Blackbirds outnumbering the (6) Redwing and (11) Fieldfares which are still around but in decreasing numbers.