Wednesday January 6 - Locked down again

 Here we go again. We have to stay indoors and not meet anyone indoors except in a support bubble or outdoors apart from one other person for local daily exercise, or medical appointments, or shopping. 

So I should be able to carry on as before, as the above describes my life.

But today I decided to stay very local indeed. The plan was to count all the wildlife I could see from the house from dawn to dusk, and also to try to rediscover any artistic ability I may once have had. Unfortunately I have let it slip, and despite picking a bird which wouldn't move around much, it took me a number of attempts to come up with something I'm not too ashamed of. 

I give you; the Woodpigeon. Well I've got to start somewhere.

As usual I got bored drawing the background.

Obviously this is a common bird in the garden, and is one of only three species which has attempted to breed here.

At Morton Bagot they were ridiculously common in the days when the land was arable farmland, and are still pretty common now that it's mostly trees. My Birdtrack statistics tell me I have recorded the species on 1152 visits since 2007 and the accompanying graph illustrates their yearly trend.

My feeling is that, partly due to its ubiquity, but also because it is not easily caught, there are a number of question-marks about its movements. The species is present all year, but both over our garden and at Morton Bagot huge numbers appear in late autumn. Many of these are apparently migrating, but where are they coming from? Where are they going?

This graph demonstrates the peak counts at Morton Bagot for each week of the year.

Incidentally, all these neat graphs are generated by my own Birdtrack records and I think all birders should join the BTO (British Trust for Ornithology) to submit their own stuff. It gives a lot back.

Turning briefly back to my garden; my first creature was a Red Fox which called from the street at 05.15, quickly followed by a singing Robin. 

I recorded 119 birds of 29 species, the highlights being eight fly-over Ravens, a brief appearance in the garden of a Song Thrush, and regular sightings of two male Blackcaps, which joined the two Redwings, and six Blackbirds guzzling the windfall apples I had preserved from our apple tree.

The full list was:

                                            In garden            Over garden

Cormorant                                                            1

Lesser Black-backed Gull                                    2

Herring Gull                                                         2

Woodpigeon                            4                           10

Stock Dove                                                           1

Feral Pigeon                                                         5

Collared Dove                         1

Great Spotted Woodpecker                                   2

Magpie                                    1                            3

Jackdaw                                   1                            7

Rook                                                                     10

Carrion Crow                                                         2

Raven                                                                     8

Wren                                        1

Blue Tit                                    4

Great Tit                                   1

Long-tailed Tit                                                        1

Blackcap                                  2

Starling                                    5                            15

Blackbird                                 6

Redwing                                   2

Song Thrush                             1

Robin                                        2

Dunnock                                   1

House Sparrow                         8

Pied Wagtail                              1

Chaffinch                                  3

Goldfinch                                  6

Lockdown is what you make of it.