On 18 March it was exactly a year since I started working from home. I continued birding from home. I also managed a photo of one of the birds I’d seen before – a Brown-throated Martin.
Two of the birds that I don’t see that often visited. An immature Black Sparrowhawk flew over my house.
A Thick-billed Weaver visited the tree next to my balcony for a few minutes before disappearing.
But the birding highlight of the month was undoubtedly the European Honey Buzzard that I saw soaring over my house. He was incredibly high, and it was already dusk, so I only got a couple of bad record photos, but at least I could make out the tail pattern to confirm the ID. This was species #79 since lockdown started.
I also played around with the macro lens again. One night I found a Button Spider and a wolf Spider.
A black fly watched me with disinterest and a little pink moth sat on a pink flower.
A couple more spiders caught my eye. This little jumping spider paid me a visit.
I spotted this beautiful crab spider with his lunch.
It is amazing what colourful little creatures you can find it you look around.
I did an excursion a little further from home – we went on a herping & birding outing neat the Vaaldam. The highlight of the day were the many Garden Orb Web spiders we found. The size difference between the female and the male is quite remarkable.
Another one was getting breakfast ready.
We also found a Boetger’s Caco frog and a Brown House Snake.
The birding highlights of the day included a Peregrine Falcon and a Spotted Eagle Owl.
It is incredible to think that the end of March marked a year since lock-down started. The world had changed in ways we could never have imagined. It looks like Covid-19 will be around for a long time to come. For now I will continue to work from home. It will be a case of wait and see what the next 12 months will bring.