Lockdown - Sat 28/03/2020

This is the first of what is intended to be a twice weekly post relating to the species of birds, butterflies, and moths (other creatures may also feature) in our garden at Winyates East on the east side of Redditch. The subject of these posts will continue to focus on our garden as long as government advice remains that there should be no travel except for essential purposes.

Although our garden is in Worcestershire according to modern political boundaries (and therefore for bird records), it is in VC38 which counts as Warwickshire for the recording of all other groups (eg insects).

I'll begin with some images taken from our windows, and in our garden, to illustrate how ordinary and suburban the environment is.

The front aspect looking north

The front garden

As you can see the front garden is very small, and cultivated for flowers and shrubs. 

A view from a back window looking south

Our back garden is a reflection of the fact Lyn and I have different visions of how it should look. The pretty bit is near the house. Lyn is unfortunately unable to garden, but is very willing to direct me. The extent to which I comply can be a bone of contention.

Lyn's bit.

On the opposite side of the garden is a dilapidated shed and a "wild area" which shows what can be achieved by total neglect.

My bit

The garden is dominated by a mature apple tree which produces a variety of apple called Blenheim Orange, and an awful lot of tiny moths at the right season.

Many birders in the UK started keeping lockdown lists of birds from last weekend. My start was delayed until Friday by my reluctance to embrace the concept of not going out, and I have paid for that tardiness as the sunny weather of the past week has given way to largely grey skies and a chilly north-easterly wind. This is not great for insect recording.

So down to business. A combined total of yesterday's and today's birds is as follows:

1. Buzzard - yesterday
2. Greenfinch - heard singing yesterday

Neither of these species was recorded today. Today's list continues therefore as:

3. Blackcap - heard singing
4. Lesser Black-backed Gull
5. House Sparrow
6. Collared Dove
7. Carrion Crow
8. Nuthatch
9. Wren
10. Blackbird
11. Starling
12. Goldfinch
13. Magpie
14. Blue Tit
15. Robin
16. Woodpigeon
17. Greylag Goose - heard calling as they flew over
18. Great Tit
19. Jackdaw - a party of 25 flying over was more than usual
20. Dunnock
21. Feral Pigeon
22. Sparrowhawk
23. Stock Dove - two flying over
24. Coal Tit
25. Chaffinch

Dunnock

The birds featured above are generally the species which occur regularly in or over the garden, the scarcest probably being the Blackcap and the Stock Doves. I will not be producing a full list for each half week, but will only add additions to the tally.

I suspect that invertebrates will feature much more heavily in future. It just so happened that I only recorded one species of butterfly yesterday (and none today) as the weather turned colder. So the butterfly list is:

1. Peacock

You're likely to get sick of looking at moth photos over the next few weeks, but last night the trap produced only two moths of a single species which I had already caught this year, pre-lockdown, so I didn't bother to photograph them.

The lockdown moth list is thus:

1. Common Quaker

Other groups occur, but I'm not going to go into any detail about flies, bees, spiders, worms, slugs etc because I don't really know enough about them.

I did record one mammal:

1. Grey Squirrel

Bloody things.

So that's your lot for now. Until the moth trap starts producing, future posts should be more concise.

Keep safe.