Monthly Warble - September 2020
I'm writing this September roundup from my desk at university! I moved back into Halls two weeks ago to re-do my second year, which I began in 2019 but withdrew from in the interest of my mental health. My desk on-looks the courtyard for my Block, and it is the most perfect autumnal day. I'm sat in a blanket, with a hot water bottle, some hot tea and some hot squash - my current obsession.
Bird feeder fun
Needless to say, the start of September was brimming with exciting wildlife, with my trip to the New Forest. I won't go into detail, because I posted about it last week, but I saw my first fallow deer and there were woodland birds galore. In fact, I've had some more encounters with nuthatches recently too. Last week, I was sat at my desk writing up lectures and the like. It was a sunny day, a slight crispness to the air but still in keeping with September weather. I noticed that someone in the room across from mine was hanging a feeder out of their window and had attracted a nuthatch! I was super excited - as I said in my last post, nuthatches don't frequent my local patch in Kent, so to watch them whilst doing homework was great!
During my first year in Halls in 2018, I did the same thing with a couple of bird feeders. My feeders were a dining spot for blue tits, great tits, a wood pigeon, a jay (who liked to alarm me at 5:00am if the feeder had not been put out), and a very hungry squirrel. I lovingly named him Sonny, due to his relentless appetite for sunflower seeds, to the dismay of my student bank account. Sometimes I’d leave the window open at night, and would wake up with a squirrel next to the bed. I'm being visited by my dad on Tuesday, so I've told him to bring up my one-way glass window feeder, to try and get in on the nuthatch action! Nuthaction, if you will.
The hungry boy himself, for reference (note the husks of many devoured seeds, inside)
An elusive wryneck
September was a very busy month for me. After getting back from the New Forest I was straight into uni-planning overdrive. Therefore, my birding opportunities ran quite low. However, when I heard that there was a wryneck in town, I found the time immediately! Whilst I was in the New Forest, the bird had remained in the same place for 4 days straight and seemed to be quite a poser for the crowds of birders who flocked to admire it. The photos of the wryneck were stunning and I couldn't wait to get home to see it!
The day after I returned to Kent my dad and I went to find the wryneck near Faversham. It was another beautiful mid-September day and we were so excited. We were given a rough explanation of where the bird was, but no actual coordinates, so we thought we'd struggle finding it; however, the low hum of birdwatchers chatting in anticipation is a sound as familiar to me as the call of a lapwing, so we weren't looking for long. The wryneck’s hiding spot was in some bushes alongside a playing field, which was lined (at a distance) with people and cameras. We plonked ourselves down and sat in wait. And we waited, waited some more, and then waited just a little bit longer. After an hour and a half of waiting, someone kindly informed us that the wryneck had not been seen that day, nor was it likely to appear, as the previous day it had shown on five occasions by the same time. Our hopes were crushed of seeing the wryneck, but we were still in good spirits, because it was a lovely afternoon to sit on the grass, and it meant we had quality time together before I went off to uni again.
That pretty much concludes birding for September 2020, but like I said, you can find much more content in my last post about The New Forest. The sun is setting here now and there's rain pattering down outside. I am so relaxed, it's been the perfect cosy day. I've missed university, as I mentioned I dropped out last year because I wasn't well. This year I'm not where I want to be, but I feel more able to tackle learning again and remain healthy. I've changed my course from English Literature and International Relations, to English Literature and a module of Beginner's A2 French. I'm loving my new-ish course and it's far more aligned with my dream of publishing books on nature. As you know, I am very excited about one day having a platform to influence and encourage others to take interest in the natural world. I've signed up for mentorships with professionals in media through uni, I've been to careers seminars and I've applied for a really exciting opportunity with the BTO - fingers crossed! This is my year of really taking life by the balls; developing my mental health and my self-reliance; getting that grade so I can take my Masters in nature writing; build my CV, experience and skills; work on networking with peers and people to inspire me; and generally have a good time!
That's all for now. Thank you for reading and I hope you visit again for next week's post 🙂