03/06/2020 Week 3 of Easing of Lockdown Restrictions

Nothing much to report this week!  Despite the extra freedom Boris is allowing, we stayed in lockdown going out only to walk the dogs, exercise and do a minimum amount of birding.

Knepp 28/05/2020

After the wonderful experiences at Knepp last week, I felt a desperate need to see a turtle dove.  Remember I had heard them frequently but a sighting proved elusive.  With this in mind, last Thursday I decided to go back once more but this time with a specific brief to see one.

• I was on site just after 7am and by 7.15 am I had succeeded when a delightful turtle dove was showing near the top of a dead tree - a couple of hundred metres away but giving great scope views.
• By way of a bonus and prior to seeing the turtle dove, I also saw another cracking cuckoo - also in a dead tree.

By 8 am I was on my way home to surprise Sue and the dogs - job done!

Exercising

• More swifts this week.  The best show was tonight on my way home from the town centre after my long walk.  There were scores of them flying low over the roof tops and making a hell of a racket - much to my delight.

Dog Walking

• Nice to see the mallards with their new chicks on the pond near my home.
• Even more pleasing was the sight of our local moorhens with at least 5 new chicks in tow as they swam around the pond.
• Several really good sightings of green woodpeckers in the play area adjacent to the pond and another, of a pair, at the Millennium Green on one of our longer walks.

Quiet week but delightful still!