5 April. Big Birdwatch.
6.30 am, bit chilly, woke in my cabin, ramped up the gas heater, put on the kettle. Dawn chorus in full swing - Skylark, Fieldfare, Blackbird, Song Thrush, Starling, Yellowhammer among the early singers, Cranes yodelling, Bittern booming off yonder. From the window, first sightings of the day, two White Storks atop a distant nest, then Jay at the feeders and Grey Herons and flights of Great White Egrets heading out from the colony.
Coffee duly drunk, took a two-hour stroll, cutting through the woodland and wetland edge, thereafter back through meadows. Snipe and Green Sandpipers, Great, Middle and Lesser Spotted Woodpeckers, Bitterns still booming, Water Rail squealing, a pair of Marsh Harriers active over their nest site. Plenty of common birds, plus a little bit of migration, with incoming flights of Chaffinches, Redwings, Fieldfares and White Wagtails. Deviated to incorporate a patch of spruce, the only area on my land to regularly get Coal Tits and Goldcrests, them got lucky with a roosting Tawny Owl.
Now 9.00 am, already 42 species seen, back for breakfast. Despite still nippy, tucked into my porridge on the outside bench, Magpie, fly-over Mute Swans, Bean and White-fronted Geese and a perching Great Grey Shrike for my reward - the later particularly nice, usually just a winter visitor to my land. Breakfast and another coffee over, a wander to the edge of my property to scan adjacent White Stork nests, twitching the Tree Sparrows and House Sparrows that nest within the storks' nests. Duly saw them, plus Linnets, so wandered to an area of regenerating scrub the other side of my land, Woodlarks on breeding territory, my first Chiffchaff of the year and a rather nice Grey-headed Woodpecker.
Approaching midday, and almost back at my cabin and enjoying the sun now showing considerable warmth, I was now in for the highlight of the day – a gaggle of geese attracted my attention to the sky, but there to a backdrop of picture perfect blue was a sight most pleasant – sharing a thermal, one adult White-tailed Eagle and one Black Stork! White-tailed Eagles are reasonably regular on my land, Black Storks aren't anymore! In former years, there used to be pretty much annual, but this was only the second in the last seven years, so pretty happy I was.
And then it was time for barbecue, aka doing nothing but sitting in the sun and scanning the sky. So passed several lazy hours, a steady stream of White Storks drifting north, mostly threes and fours, but also one flock of 23, also a number of Cranes and Buzzards northbound too. One more White-tailed Eagle, an immature this time and one new bird for the day, a Sparrowhawk. As evening approached, and with the day's tally sitting at 61, I took another walk, this time adding only Long-tailed Tits. Then, however, I returned for a grand finale upon my bench - just after 7.00 pm, a magnificent Lesser Spotted Eagle flying directly across my view, my first of the year and a very nice bird. Not long after, three Whooper Swans did a fly-by and then, to end the day in style, a little bit of a stake out – at 8.30 pm the previous evening, a Woodcock had passed over by cabin, calling its little grunt. So there I waited in expectation ...and at 8.30 pm, so it went over again! So the dying embers of the day, bird number 65 for my land.
6-8 April. Partial Lockdown.
Coronavirus cases now at 912, up 220 or so in the last four days, deaths at 15. Lithuanian government announces a PARTIAL LOCKDOWN for the coming Easter weekend - for three days, movement between municipalities prohibited, entry into all cities and towns across the country will be restricted. Very clever to announce so early however, just means everyone will just travel in advance of the lockdown! Wearing of face masks to become mandatory, currently only 20-30% of folk using them.
Meanwhile, up on my land, a growing sense of spring - temperature up to a pleasant 18 C, sun in full force. And with the sun, butterflies back on show (several Yellow-legged Tortoiseshells, a very nice Camberwell Beauty, a few Small Tortoiseshells and Peacocks, a couple of Commas and plenty of Brimstones), plus good numbers of amphibians out to play, lumbering Common Toads, a few Common Frogs and heaving hordes of Moor Frogs racheting up their annual din! Top of the lot though, a new species for my land, two Smooth Newts in one of my excavated pools, very pleased with those!
On the bird front, two new for the year - one smart Black-tailed Godwit in summer dress on the floodpool on the 6th, then my first returning Pied Flycatcher on the 8th. Equally nice, Woodcock is now a regular evening bird, roding at dusk on a regular crcuit, plus Water Rail and Bittern continuing their vocal ways.