CWP rarities in lockdown

18 May - During lockdown, the travel restrictions meant that bird news could not be released as "twitching" even locally was off limits except for cycling or Shank's pony. Fortunately, living within easy cycling distance of the Water Park, I was able to do both my daily birding in various areas and to see a couple of rarities that arrived and could only be seen by locals within area. The first of these was only the second record of Black-winged Stilt for CWP, the previous record having been back in the 1980s. A bird arrived at Shorncote on 11 April and remained all day, being visible from the cycle path to Keynes Park. A very elegant wader as always, with impossibly long legs. It was found in Glos but then moved a couple of hundred yards into Wilts. The second rarity was a White Stork found a week later on 17 April, in meadows along the Thames at Waterhay. It fed in the field and moved off to roost, was not there the next morning but I relocated it, looking very bedraggled, at North Meadow, Cricklade. Due to a rainy day (rare this spring) it stayed until the following morning, when it was seen to fly off north, mobbed by one of the local Red Kites. The same day a female Long-tailed Duck was at Pit 125 near Fairford, again only seen by a few locals. One of the better periods in recent memory for CWP rarities unfortunately coincided with a period when not many people were able to see them.