And so Lock Down Part 2 has begun, initially for 4 weeks, and all my plans and holidays have gone out of the window yet again. I've managed to get vouchers or my money back for my trips to Germany, Czechia, Cornwall and Suffolk so that is something and as I have to remind myself I am healthy and still working which others are not in a position to say.
I had to attend Track and Trace for a (routine) COVID swab on Saturday 7th November, my 4th one and something I now have to do weekly for my job (and all negative so far). Afterwards we drove up to Burrator Reservoir on Dartmoor for a walk. However it was absolutely packed with people when we arrived, the busiest I have ever seen it, and so we carried on up onto the Moor where it was quieter and had a quick 30 minute walk before the rain arrived (again).
Monday 9th November and I met my work colleague Sue and her dog Daisy at Saltram for (a Lock Down allowed) walk. It was grey and cloudy but mild although as I headed home later the rain duly arrived again.
We had an enjoyable walk and a catch up and along the way saw a few birds too. The woodland held the usual Blue, Great, Coal and Long-tailed Tits, Goldcrest, Wren, Goldfinch, etc, with a yaffling Green Woodpecker heard only and a Raven seen flying overhead cronking away.
The tide was coming in but it wasn't a very high tide and on Blaxton Meadow 3 Greenshank, a Grey Heron and an adult Lesser Black-backed Gull were roosting with the usual Redshank, Curlew, Oystercatcher, Shelduck and Common, Black-headed, Herring and Great Black-backed Gulls.
Along the River Plym at Marsh Mills 2 redhead Goosander busily diving for fish showed very well along with 2 Grey Wagtail, a Common Sandpiper, a Kingfisher, a pair of Mallard and a flyover Sparrowhawk.
I have also received some information back regarding 2 gulls with leg rings I saw at Wembury back in September this year. The first was a 2nd Calendar Year Great Black-backed Gull seen on 9/9/20 with a white plastic leg ring P04D and which was ringed at Portland, Dorset as a pullus on 27/6/19 and which was also seen in Dorset on 15/7/20.
The second was an adult Mediterranean Gull on 11/9/20 with a white plastic ring 3LKT and which was ringed as a pullus on 21/6/12 in The Netherlands. It had been seen at Wembury the year before on 17/9/19 and had also been seen at Broadsands in Devon on 14/7/20 by local birder Bill Coulson (@billcoulson3).
Fascinating stuff and all made possible by ringing schemes, I must make more of an effort to read leg rings when I come across them (and gulls are big enough birds to read leg rings fairly easily).
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