A truism, which has sadly become a reality for so many of us. If you're anything like me, you'll have spent the long dark nights of winter thinking of spring adventures- the days when our little friends arrive back from their winter holidays and deafen us with song, the days spent at the coast, on clifftops, in marshes, on hills and moors. And this year, this has been snatched away from us.
The (massive) cloud of wrecked plans, though, appears to be a new appreciation of my local patch. With family commitments, my birding is usually restricted to 1 day per weekend. A focus on maximising the birds for each visit often meant jumping in the car and heading far and wide, to the neglect of my local area.
Now, though, I have a new appreciation of what I've missed. The trees and bushes are vibrant with warbler song, hirundines have arrived in force, song thrushes sing in the wee hours (actually, not 100% keen on getting woken up at 3am) Bullfinches nest and feed openly, dipper and kingfisher share the river raptors soar over fields, and cause chaos, corvids are slowly plotting taking over the world, ducks and geese are breeding successfully, the otter has stopped being so shy, and the bats have woken up.
I remember years ago doing First Aid training with the Red Cross. Our instructor told us on the first day that the only thing you can't survive is death. It particularly helps when we are surrounded by so much life.
The (massive) cloud of wrecked plans, though, appears to be a new appreciation of my local patch. With family commitments, my birding is usually restricted to 1 day per weekend. A focus on maximising the birds for each visit often meant jumping in the car and heading far and wide, to the neglect of my local area.
Now, though, I have a new appreciation of what I've missed. The trees and bushes are vibrant with warbler song, hirundines have arrived in force, song thrushes sing in the wee hours (actually, not 100% keen on getting woken up at 3am) Bullfinches nest and feed openly, dipper and kingfisher share the river raptors soar over fields, and cause chaos, corvids are slowly plotting taking over the world, ducks and geese are breeding successfully, the otter has stopped being so shy, and the bats have woken up.
I remember years ago doing First Aid training with the Red Cross. Our instructor told us on the first day that the only thing you can't survive is death. It particularly helps when we are surrounded by so much life.
