Lockdown Diary: Sunday 5.4.20

The undoubted highlight of my daily exercise cycle down through Ferry Meadows CP was the first Common Tern if the year. It looked pretty tired, sitting on a buoy for ages (presumably after a long migration from the south), but also did several circuits of the largest lake (called Gunwade Lake) and caught a few tiddlers, as terns do. It was one of those Common Terns which looks very dark billed (almost like a Roseate Tern in bill colour, from certain angles), which i think is a bit of a spring thing. We don’t tend to see them looking like that later into the summer.

Common Tern, Ferry Meadows CP, Peterborough (5.4.20)

Elsewhere in the park, it was business as usual, with Chiffchaff, Blackcap and Swallow the only other summer migrants. Ring-necked Parakeets have seemingly established a bit of a mini-colony in this part of Peterborough, and I am seeing and hearing them every day now. Whether I tick them though, is another matter…

Great Crested Grebe, Ferry Meadows CP, Peterborough (5.4.20)

Grey Heron, Ferry Meadows CP, Peterborough (5.4.20)

Oystercatcher, Ferry Meadows CP, Peterborough (5.4.20)

Red Kite, Ferry Meadows CP, Peterborough (5.4.20)

Song Thrush, Ferry Meadows CP, Peterborough (5.4.20)

I have resolved to have a garden night vigil every day (night), weather permitting. In the night of Sunday into Monday, I managed to hear fly-over Golden Plover, Moorhen, and best of all, Water Rail, calling a rapid squealing piglet call as it flew over. A garden tick for me, taking my Peterborough garden list to 89 birds.