We are now firmly on the road out of lockdown and I feel like a bird that has been too long in a cage and is hesitant to fly away when the door opens. I have been doing birding on foot and driving feels very odd, I haven't driven in months! I just drive to Noddle Hill, which is a bit far for walking, still quite local, in fact it is my Local Nature Reserve. I had a lovely visit in December, when it was quite flooded, and I want to check how it has changed in these few months. It is an unseasonably warm day, but there is a cool mist, and a jacket doesn't seem too much early in the morning. I hear the Greylag Geese as soon as I open the car door. They are very noisy in the run up to breeding, males chasing rivals, often unprompted and returning to their partners for the 'triumph ceremony', which mostly looks like males showing off. A Cormorant is fishing in the lake.
Cormorant stretch.
Male Bullfinch.
The lake is quite full, but the paths are not muddy. As it is usual early in the morning, I only come across a couple of fishermen and a few dog walkers. A pair of Bullfinches feed on cherry buds. Chiffchaffs sing: three, four? it is hard to tell, but their song is today's soundtrack near the wooded areas around the lake.
On the scrub, the song is replaced by the chattering song of Linnets and the occasional Reed Bunting. Small groups sit atop hawthorns, chasing and singing.
I walk along the Foredyke stream and spot a bird on the path: a Grey Partridge! I move a bit closer and two of them flush and fly over to the wet grassland near the pumping station. That is a nice year tick! A Skylark sings from above the fields and there are two Lapwing on the stubbles. One of them takes flight and pirouettes, calling, displaying, chasing a passing crow.
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