I walked (for those that know King's Lynn) from my house to past the train station, through the corner of the walks, across the busy road, past the library and down to Fisherfleet to look for Kingfisher and Grey Wagtail – both which I have seen here over the years, but neither seen today, just lots of discarded shopping trolleys and loads of other rubbish. I did see some Mallard, 2 Blackbirds and some Wood Pigeons. By the corner of the road looking out over the Great Ouse River, I could see distant gulls, some were Black-headed, others were too far away, also a Redshank and an Oystercatcher were feeding on the distant mudflats.
I diverted through the back of Boal Quay car park and up onto a high bank that leads to Harding's Pits Doorstep Green, which if had been along the coast, would have been a lovely little spot. The Visitor Information Board had been covered in graffiti, as had every single bench/seat in what could be an idyllic little reserve. Next to every seat were piles of lager cans and such like and it was all pretty depressing. I felt very uneasy walking round here and its highly unlikely I will return. Left here feeling pretty glum, walked back via a different route through The Walks, which is a large park in the centre of King's Lynn, but again didn't feel particularly safe walking there either. The highlight as soon as I entered the park, was a Song Thrush feeding amongst leaf litter. Only other birds seen were Wood Pigeons (all exciting stuff), Mallards and 1 Moorhen. Aside from the Song Thrush, the flowers beds were more interesting than the bird life.
Crossed over by the railway crossing and diverted right along the cycle path that comes out by the Jet Garage – tons and tons of depressing rubbish in the ditch that runs the length of this path. Bird of the day was seen here, a male Blackcap shot across the path and melted away into a dense bush, not to be seen again. I still haven't heard a Chiffchaff this Spring yet. On the playing fields (King Edward VII Academy) I saw 2 Mistle Thrushes and 1 Starling and on the opposite side of the path, 8 Jackdaws were feeding on another school playing field. It was very cold now, returned home tired and fed-up.
I was even more fed-up when I heard this evening, that the lockdown may go on for 6 months. People's mental health is going to be seriously affected by then, if not before. I see on social media that these wet markets in China, selling everything from cats to dogs, bats etc are back in action, according to an undercover reporter – I hope to god that this is fake news!
I going to miss the sea so much. I seriously get withdrawal symptoms when I havn't seen the sea for a while, its going to be very difficult to cope with. I can't believe that the Spring Migration is going to be non-existent for myself and many land-locked birders. Mind you, some people are not bothered about twisting the rules and are still going to the coast, even today with posts on Twitter about people driving to Brancaster beach to walk their dogs, but police were there to send them packing – hopefully people will get the message eventually that driving to the beach is NOT essential travel and not necessary in order to have your daily permitted exercise walk, which should be started from your front door, be it a flat, housing estate, village or town. I'm not going to post as many tweets as I have been lately as I have been getting over involved and some people are just trying to wind me up, because they have nothing better to do, I can't be doing with it, especially as its now going to get really serious at the QEH.
I more than probably won't go for any more walks in King's Lynn, instead I think I will blitz the garden, which to be honest needs loads of work doing and I won't have to worry about the 6ft gap between people either, plus there are more birds in my garden than what I have seen today!
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