Corona Wildlife Diary: Day Seventy-five.

LewesWildlife
, 31 May 2020
Corona Wildlife Diary: Day Seventy-five.
Photo: Ryan Greaves

Wow. Seventy-five days. I have to say, I'm impressed I've got this far. Saying that, I'm going to have to stop sometime as I need a break.

So the plan is I'll go on to 100 which will take me to 25 June. 

And we'll run 3 more weekly Back Garden Bird Races (7,14 & 21 June).

As they've been so popular though I'm planning to continue running Bird Races once a month after June. Birds tend to go very quiet in July and August as many of them hide away while moulting their feathers. By running a regular Bird Race once a month we'll be able to see monthly changes in behaviour such as the movement of birds south in the autumn as well as the arrival of winter visitors.

Of course the virus could hit us with that 'second spike'...in which case we'll all be locked down again and I'll have to think of something else to write about.

Day Seventy-five

There were blue skies again today. There has really only been two or three days of rain since I started these diaries at the end of March.

There were certainly plenty of fledgling birds in my garden today. I was visited early in the race by a family of Goldfinches and Starlings but they soon flew off. Then a family of Great Tits and Blue Tits appeared and took up residency on either side of the garden for the rest of the race. As lovely as it was to see these happy families their incessant calling was infuriating! 

Sue Curnock

(Great Tit family. Photo: Sue Curnock)

Everyone reported plenty of fledgling activity in their gardens too. Moi Hicks sent in this great photo of a young Great-spotted Woodpecker and its parent.

Moi Hicks wood

(Photo Moi Hicks)

Clare in Seaford had to abandon the Bird Race after 35 minutes when a rustling in her garden turned out to be a Hedgehog. Clare said "I thought at first it needed rescuing but it went under my shed where I think it might be nesting!"

Clare Mayers

Collage

(Photos Cliff Dean, Gemma Pratt, Dave Kilbey, Sue Curnock, Andrew Chandler-Grevatt, Ryan Greaves)

Thank you to everyone who took part in this week's Back Garden Bird Race. Congratulations to everybody who achieved a new Personal Best score. Here are the results from this week. Apologies as always for any errors or omissions.

Birdlist 31May V3

Andy put his results on a Venn Diagram again. And this week it was even more complicated. 

Andy Dinsdale

This list shows all the birds reported from Sussex gardens this week, from most frequent (in red) to least frequent (in green) with a total count of 67 species. 

Birdlist 31May

Thank you again to everyone who took part this week. Thank you to Lois Mayhew of Sussex Biodiversity Record Centre for her help with today's data.

Collage 2

We'll hold the 10th Back Garden Bird Race next Sunday. Looking at the forecast it may rain on Saturday. I'll believe it when I see it. 

Ryan Dog



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Comments

  • Ginny-Vic:

    38 from Cliff! Wow! I don’t think I could name 38 let alone spot them! Michael you should win a wildlife award for these diaries! If I knew of any I would defo vote for you to receive one! Thank you to you and Lois for all your hard work today! I really enjoyed taking part.

    31 May 2020 18:12:00

  • Tessa:

    As you say “Wow”, seventy five days of the Corona diaries! You are a star Michael and thank you so much for saying you will carry on until day 100. I shall be bereft when you stop but ever thankful that you started this mad caper and of course appreciate that there might be some other things you want to do sometimes!

    31 May 2020 19:21:00

  • Moi Hicks:

    So look forward to taking part each Sunday. ( I`ve been doing my garden bird count for many years ) Thank you for organising this.

    31 May 2020 20:32:00

  • Clifford Dean:

    For weeks this bird race has been the only fixture in a diary otherwise bereft of meetings, appointments, obligations, social events and holidays! It’s been fun in fog and sun; today, strangely, the coldest of all in shadow of an oak with my Nice View providing a chilling onshore breeze. It’s easy to see a lot of birds here – anyone could do it – so my element of challenge is to scrutinise the distant levels though even there bird-shapes wobble indefinably in the heat haze. Like everyone I have no control over which birds decide to show or sing, so end up absurdly short of a Wren or Blue Tit. Birds of Shame we call them.

    01 Jun 2020 06:42:00

  • Paul:

    I read this on the BBC website this weekend and reading your competitive nature Michael, I wondered if you could beat this record of identifying 573 different species of insect, bird, plant and animal life in an“ordinary-sized” city garden during a three-year wildlife survey? ://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cambridgeshire-52840241

    01 Jun 2020 08:15:00

  • Paul:

    I read this on the BBC website this weekend and reading your competitive nature Michael, I wondered if you could beat this record of identifying 573 different species of insect, bird, plant and animal life in an“ordinary-sized” city garden during a three-year wildlife survey? ://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cambridgeshire-52840241

    01 Jun 2020 09:55:00

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