After three days being housebound. yesterday's walk saw a a longer outing in the hope of some different birds. Normally the nearby golf course would be out of bounds but today it was very pleasant to walk across the daisy and dandelion strewn grass and sit on a golfer's 'rest bench', soak up the sun and enjoy the sound of multiple singing Reed Warblers, a couple of Whitethroats and a heard only Little Grebe. The 'dry patch' Cetti's was still singing as was a second bird in the reedbed and the taller vegetation had three more singing Blackcaps.
Crossing the road and then dodging the numerous cyclists saw me perched up on a block of concrete embedded in the shingle hoping to add to the minimal lockdown mammal list with the addition of Harbour Seal, but sadly I couldn't find any. Nice to hear a few more Med Gulls and add some species to the lockdown list namely Shelduck, Oystercatcher, Curlew, Whimbrel, Little Egret and Sandwich Tern. A few other wader were too far out into the low tide heat haze to ID with 8x binoculars. On departure another Cetti's was calling close to two concealed fisherman - God knows what they were fishing for here - and a second whinnying Little Grebe.
The walk back produced mostly white butterflies, including one or more Green-veined and several scruffy Peacocks. Finally, a fresh male Orange Tip (nfy) was in the same spot as last week's female on the edge of Squirrel Wood.
Sadly, despite the continuing decent weather other inverts have dropped off with far less bees and hovers and no Bee Flies for the first day since they appeared.
