For all of April, May, June and July we were not allowed to travel except for limited reasons, none of which was birding – although, from reading the birding magazines, plenty of people found a way around this in pursuit of their more important hobby. For us, though, we stayed at home so the only birds we had were out usual birds. For a summary of these dire days and then our brief foray into the outside world in August read on
In April we had a Mute Swan fly over which is unusual and our first Ring-necked Parakeets. It was May before we saw our first Swift above the rooftops and on the 16th we had a Great Spotted Woodpecker on our feeders – not a common event for us as we are a little away from the local woods. We have friends who live closer who have them regularly.
June and July were much the same so our monthly totals were a feeble average of around 16 species.
We did venture out once in August and this was really only because my birding scope needed to be repaired. I had contacted Swarovski before the Covid lock-down and they said that they would repair it but then a few days later they said they could not guarantee and truck deliveries due to restrictions so I thought I would ignore it for a while. Another problem was that I would have to pay for delivering it to them myself and, with insurance, that would cost me over £100. My solution was to return it via In Focus where I had originally bought it – years ago. Their shop at Martin Mere had closed down. They refused to renew their lease because they wanted to start selling optics (solely) themselves at Martin Mere. Apparently this was the idea of a management person who had come from The National Trust and had taken over running Martin Mere.
Their solution as to negotiate with Brockholes Nature Reserve near Preston and they agreed to host them. They were supposed to be getting a half of one of the new hides – big, well protected place. Their plan had been to be able to take let people try out their scopes from their big shop/hide as at Martin Mere but when Covid came around it was not safe to have a lot of people inside an unventilated building so they have set in motion work to create a big open window in the shop that would allow plenty of fresh air to circulate. It’s all a bit of a mess but they will get there eventually. Andy Bunting was quite pleased with the move because it meant he could cycle to work. Bernie wasn’t bothered either way but they were both a bit frustrated they could not settle in properly due to the Covid issues and slow building work etc. Anyway, I dropped my ocular lens off to get the locking pin fixed (at no cost by returning it to In Focus).
We had thought that it might be quite quiet there but we could not have been more wrong. The car park was heaving with people as they were all off furloughed from work and children were not allowed back to school. It was a reasonably nice day so everyone had decided to go to Brockholes. The car park was so busy and nobody was wearing masks even though they were within a foot or so from other people. We rushed our way through them and went to In Focus. After leaving we thought that if we walked to the remoter parts of the site we might find ourselves alone but it was pretty busy in most places.
We walked all the way around the lakes and through the woods and back. I was quite pleased to have managed this with my leg muscles still not working very well. We didn’t see anything exceptional but it was a joy to see some of the migratory birds that we take for granted every year. We saw our first Common Terns, Swallows and House Martins. We also got our first Chiffchaff of the year !!
By the time we were back round we were ready to get home. We had been quite shocked at the lackadaisical approach of most of the people we saw. We were probably the only people wearing masks there and the paths were so narrow that you had to squeeze past each other. Some people really didn’t care and it came as no surprise to us later that evening when we saw on the news that Special Measures were to be applied to Preston due the big rise in Covid infections in the area.
The whole situation really put us off but it was so good to be in the outdoors not just the garden. We are fortunate to have a big house and a nice little garden. You have to feel for people living in flats and bedsits; it must be hard.