Lockdown update - May 4

Yesterday morning I went for my exercise walk up to Skilts Common and back. I may previously have alluded to the possibility that this place could produce the next lockdown mega-rarity. This was a mistake. Being mildly superstitious I knew even as I typed the sentiment that the mere act of prediction would mean that I'll never see anything rare at Skilts Common.

Sure enough, the walk was so dull that I didn't even find anything worth pointing the camera at. The best bird, a singing Garden Warbler, remained out of sight until my patience broke and I moved on. Next best was a couple of singing Willow Warblers, or maybe a swirl of hirundines containing about 20 House Martins and 10 Swallows.

So with nothing added to the lockdown list I decided to spend the morning playing with my camera in the back garden. As a regular reader of the excellent NQS blog I noticed he had made some suggestions for manual settings. I was particularly interested in his proposal for shots of flying birds. After a morning of frustration I am not totally convinced, but he did say it would take practise.

A fly-over Black-headed Gull went past slowly, but I still only managed some horrible blurred images. Eventually a Sparrowhawk was a bit more obliging, but the best image still isn't up to much.

Sparrowhawk

I may have managed better on auto.

However, away from flight shots, a female Blackbird was so helpful it was as though I had ordered it to appear and pose just so.

Blackbird

Just passing the time.

The evening was chilly with a keen easterly breeze, so I wasn't too surprised to catch just one moth. At least it was new for the year; a Flame Shoulder.

Flame Shoulder

The bedroom provided me with another year-tick, the ubiquitous White-shouldered House Moth. They all count.

White-shouldered House Moth

The lockdown moth list moves on:

34. Flame Shoulder

33. White-shouldered House Moth