Lockdown week 3: my wild isolation
We have now been in lockdown for three weeks and it seems likely we will remain so for several weeks more. I do feel very lucky that to date I have not lost anyone to the virus and I am able to work from home which gives me both a structure to my day and a continued income.
However for all of us, no matter what position we find ourselves in, this is a difficult and uncertain time that has taken away a lot of what we take for granted and forced us to find new ways of living. It is only normal that we should find ourselves a little lost at times and overwhelmed by it all. The most difficult thing for me is that when I have such moments I am not able to turn to my partner for a comfort. We don’t live together and can’t practically isolate in either of our houses so I now haven’t seen him, except by video call, for four weeks.
This has made me value more the small things that can lift my mood and these are often things related to the natural world like watching a bird hopping around the garden; seeing a beautiful bright moon; the smell of the earth after rain; or the sun shining through the window onto my face. In this blog I am sharing some of the ways I have been ensuring my isolation stays wild as well as some of the wild encounters that have made me smile.
Wild alphabet
If you use Twitter a great activity to take part in is @365DaysWild’s Wild Alphabet photo challenge. Each day you photograph something beginning with that day’s letter of the alphabet and upload it to Twitter tagging it #wildalphabet. There are several reasons why I have taken to this activity:
- It is simple to follow, each day is the next letter of the alphabet so you don’t need to check back each day to find out what the challenge is.
- Although the photo can be something inside your house as well as outside, there is much more choice if you go outside. This encourages me to make the effort to go for a walk even if I really don’t feel like it.
- When you go outside, or even if you do it inside or through your window, the process of searching for something beginning with the correct letter really makes you take time to look at the nature around you.
- I usually try and complete this challenge in my lunch break which helps get my mind out of work mode and focusing on something else.
F is for Feather 
G is for Goose Grass 
H is for Hedge
Going for walks
When it comes to taking my outing for exercise I have been envious of people who live in the countryside and have an array of beautiful walks around them where there is nobody else in sight. Living in the city means that any green space I can walk to is already frequented by other people and can take a bit of coordination to maintain the two meter distance. However there is one Local Nature Reserve (LNR) within walking distance which, although busier than usual, hasn’t failed to provide some amazing wildlife moments. I have seen a water vole there before but last week was the first time I have seen two of them and they were just going about their business preening and collecting and eating food. I even managed to get a lovely video of one of them.
If you are struggling for places to walk it might be worth checking Natural England’s website for Local Nature Reserves as these can sometimes be small, tucked-away sites you hadn’t realised were there. I had started putting together a page for my website of where to find nature reserves but then they all started closing due to coronavirus. I do still plan on finishing this so it is up for when they start to reopen again.
Birdwatching
The view out of my window is the car park belonging to the flats. It sounds like it would be dull but it is actually quite nicely designed with lots of hedges and shrubs providing potential nesting areas and materials fir birds. There are also a lots of areas with ivy; shrubs with flowers and berries; leaf piles where creepy crawlies might gather; and untended areas where violets and other wild flowers are growing. These are all great things for attracting birds and other wildlife to your outdoor space. I have even managed to find somewhere to hang two bird feeders and I’m awaiting delivery of a third that I think I can squeeze in somewhere (there is a story behind these but I will save that for another day!).
The British Trust for Ornithology (BTO) run an ongoing Garden Birdwatch which is a similar citizen science project to the RSPB Big Garden Birdwatch except you note down and submit the birds you see in your garden on a week by week basis. They are currently offering everyone free access to this throughout the period of lockdown so by joining now you will receive free membership for a year which will include a regular e-newsletter and access to resources for identifying and recording your garden wildlife. Even if you only have one bird visiting your garden/balcony/a tree outside your window it is all useful information for BTO to collect and so well worth taking part in this project.
There have been many moments when watching the birds has helped lift my mood so I thought I would share some of my favourite bird moments from lockdown so far…
First visitors to a feeder
One of my feeders is a Niger seed feeder that I put up several months ago because I had a group of about five juvenile Goldfinches hanging around last year, and I know there are about a dozen or more in the area. At the point of lockdown I hadn’t actually seen any Goldfinches using the feeder and I wasn’t sure if they hadn’t found it, or didn’t like the location. Then in the first week of lockdown I finally saw three goldfinches on it so that really perked up my day and even though I haven’t seen them on it since, at least I know they know it’s there.
Roderick the Robin
There is a Robin that has set up home in a tree I can see through my window. Every morning when I open my curtains I see him perched there with his little red breast lit up by the rising sun. This always helps me start my day with a smile.
First starling
I have now lived in my current flat for a little over a year and I hadn’t previously seen a starling. One morning I saw a dark coloured bird on Roderick’s tree that just didn’t quite look like a blackbird, and sure enough, on looking through my binoculars I could see it was my first starling. This sounds like a really small thing but I always enjoy seeing a new visitor to my ‘garden’.
Nesting blackbirds
There is a blackbird couple who are regular visitors to my ‘garden’, and last week I saw the female blackbird making several trips around the hedges gathering up leaves and weeds for nest building. This is very exciting because it looks as though they may have a nest in one of my hedges.
Photos through the seasons
I have been taking photos of the view of the hedges and trees from my window each day of lockdown with the intention of turning these into an animation of how the season has progressed during that time. I haven’t been great at working out exactly what is in the frame for each photo so it will be a bit disjointed but will hopefully show the changes that have been taking place. Watch this space to see the final animations once we are finally released from lockdown.
Connecting with nature really can make a big difference to how you feel and right now we need to embrace anything that can do that. If you are stuck for ideas, especially activities for kids, take a look at my previous blogs that contain all sorts of ideas and links to resources to get you going.
