The view from the hill: wildlife during lockdown

For the past two months, we have felt luckier than ever before. As the restrictions came in I have been able to move my teaching online, continuing to work alongside my fantastic, adaptable colleagues and persevering students. 

When not teaching or marking, Jack and I have been trying out hand at brewing and winemaking (as well as flavouring some gin), as well as focusing on the garden and fields around it for entertainment. In the good weather, we've been sowing the seeds flowering plants in the garden, enjoying the antics of the robins, wrens, tree sparrows and bluetits nesting in the garden. 

The first brood, one day before fledging

We have also had a new patch tick (grasshopper warbler) and a new garden tick (cuckoo!), as well as amazing interactions with some of our local mammals, particularly the weasels and hares.

A wonderful neighbour has also been kind enough to give us had a number of carcasses (and some really welcome venison), and we have placed them out on the hill. In addition to giving us great images of the local kites (who are only interested in on the day the meat goes out), the spot is also a hub for a curious little badger family. The kites are wing tagged and I hope to find out a little more about them in the coming weeks.

However, my real saviour has been the moth trap, which has bought me several new species (plus numerous old favourites) as well as the creeping knowledge that I must buy a book on micro-moths. The trap (and driving Jack to work) has kept me to a fairly reasonable routine, preventing me from succumbing to daily lie-ins, and the amazing #teammoth community on twitter have stopped me pulling my hair out when I'm unsure of an ID. 

I'm not pretending that it hasn't been strange (and that I'm not longing to do a bit more long-distance birding) but there really is no place like home. So, for now, I'll leave you with some of the real beauties that have graced the trap since the lockdown started.

Small Pheonix

Poplar Hawk-Moth

 

White Ermine

Is it a bird poop? No, it's a bee moth!

Common Swift

 

No, it's not a twig, its a buff tip!

Beautiful Golden Y

Streamer

Blyth's Reed Warbler...

So last week Tom (the other blonde birder) and I made ourselves a bet. 400 before 40. That's over ten new birds a year for both of us... So when I saw that the Inverurie Bylth's reed warbler was still showing this morning, I hoped in the car and drove the two hours into Aberdeenshire. 

Arriving at 10:30 I met Jim (a local birder) who had been on site since 8 that morning. He'd met up with folk who'd seen the bird earlier, but hadn't gotten a look in himself. The bird was reeling away in the pines across the river, so we settled in for the long haul. 

After half an hour of staring at nothing we were joined by another couple, and just a few minutes later the bird dropped into view, showing in the bare branches at the bottom of the pine before climbing out of site.

Over the next few hours we were joined by about ten others, all twitching at every hen chaffinch and becoming steadily more angsty... After another 2 hours of nothing, a few of us decided to go grab a quick bit to eat, 25 minutes away, no more. Confident that there would be no good views in the near future, we headed back up the river to the cars. Well, you know what happens now.

On our way back from snacking we pass another birder who had given up and headed for the car. The internationally accepted migrant invite for a good long show. Then, of course, we saw one of the other birders running back along the track. The bird was singing out in the open. After a mad dash along the tow-path I got a slightly longer scoped view on this occasion and that was all she wrote, having only had a half pint of smoothy and a garage sandwich all day I headed for baked brie and cider at home. 

I didn't manage any pictures, so here's one of a poplar hawk moth that was hanging around outside my classroom this week.

This is what happens when your classroom lights are on all night!