Lockdown local Birding

Lockdown has been a pain to say the least!  January 2nd was the last time I went birding on my patch at Brascote GP,  so it's been birding in the garden and around the village - the latter not being very productive. January 15th ,a female Blackcap turned up - which for our small garden is a really good bird; the last time we saw her was on the 3rd of March but she had been in and out of the garden for 47 days altogether.

Also regular in the garden is Greenfinch, Goldfinch, Chaffinch and Robin; the local blackbirds and Dunnocks are always squabbling, and the Wood Pigeons never seem to stop feeding!

Blue Tit in the snow

We also get regular visits from Great Tit, Blue Tit and Coal Tit - with the occasional visit from Long-tailed Tits.

In early February, we had two or three inches of snow here which highlighted a few of our garden birds nicely.

Coal Tit 

Dunnock

Blackbird

Wood Pigeon

It's now mid-March, and the Blue Tits and Great Tits have been prospecting the nesting boxes, so hopefully, they will breed - and it's also nice to see all of the garden birds in their breeding plumage!

Female Blackcap

Cole Tit

The above image of a Redwing was a first for our garden, although I have seen plenty flying through

Wren

Our weekly grocery shop puts us in very close proximity to Leicester's 'Abbey Park' - a place I hadn't visited since I was a teenager, so, a few months ago, we decided to go to the park early doors for our daily exercise before doing our shop. The park has lots of Canada Geese and hybrid geese, along with lots of Mallard, as the public 'feed the ducks' with their children - but occasional other duck species do turn up as well - so the last few months, we've enjoyed our weekly walk around the park whilst seeing the bird life.

The images below are from Abbey Park 

Cormorant

Gadwall

Female Red-crested Pochard

Drake Red-crested Pochard

Drake Shoveler

This is just a snapshot of some of my images over the last few months. Hopefully, in the next few weeks we will all be able to get out and about a bit more! In the meantime, stay safe, and thanks for visiting........