[Hill Walker]

When all this is over I wonder if the birds will return. Background noise is a strange thing you tend not to notice it unless it goes away, and there have many reports mentioning the reduction of background noise since the lockdown started. Where I live its normally fairly quiet no blaring radios/TVs etc, just some traffic noise from the village’s through road about 100 yards away, some domestic activity gardening, diy, children etc, and the birds.

When the lockdown started the noise level dropped and it was really noticeable, very much like a Christmas Day morning. At first it was quite nice but as the days went on it became slightly disconcerting it was SO quiet. Just over a fortnight ago the penny dropped it was actually quieter than Christmas because there was no bird song/noise.

Since then I have been on the lookout and I have only seen one bird and that was when driving to the supermarket. I’ve got up at or before dawn several times and there is no dawn chorus here. When I am using the bathroom there is nothing from the trees at the back where there are normally a couple of nests. Most significantly my car is not being redecorated by the sh** hawks, normally this is virtually a daily occurrence.

Now I am not suggesting that anything nasty has happened to these birds but they have obviously changed their habits and gone elsewhere. There have been reports of other animals changing their habits (goats wandering around Llandudno, foxes much more visible in urban areas etc.) all of which make obvious sense, but I cannot think why the birds that are normally here are now somewhere else. Anybody noticed anything similar?