Covid not Corvids

Well it looks as though it might be sometime before I get back onto the patch. With the Covid-19 pandemic forcing the country into lockdown current restrictions prevent me from driving to my patch. It doesn't seem to prevent the masses of dog-walkers who still think it's okay to drive down there to empty their dogs.

I've not been on my bike for a couple of years, but I might have to get it sorted so I can bike down to Druridge - obviously being sensible and not using hides and keeping as safe distance from everyone.

In the meantime I'm pottering around, taking short walks from home which has been quite nice. All around our house are fields and wooded denes where you can walk for hours be unlucky to meet others. It's been nice to see woodland birds that I don't usually see like jays, nuthatches and willow tits. Strangely no great-spotted woodpeckers though... but sadly, plenty of grey squirrels.

I did get to the coast this morning by walking down to Snab Point which is only a mile from home.

My last visit to the patch was Sunday. We'd driven for six hours back from the Scottish Highlands where we'd been staying in a cottage for a week near to Tain on the Moray Firth so went down to Druridge to stretch our legs. We didn't get there until 5pm and it was still like a Bank Holiday weekend, wall to wall cars by the entrance. It was like people had one last freedom and they were going to use it.

We avoided the crowds by wandering through the bushes. We flushed a roosting barn owl, it's unusual to find barn owls in those bushes but not unheard of, we also flushed a woodcock. I haven't seen a woodcock on the patch since the 18th January last year! This must be a bird resting before continuing it's eastward migration.

Full list here

There'll be a lot less blog posts for a while unless I get the bike sorted.

Red kite from Scotland - maybe I'll see one at Druridge this Autumn?

Stay safe out there.