The announcement by the PM of a phased lockdown over the next three months gave me hope that it would not be long before I would once again be able to travel freely around the UK looking for interesting wildlife. A relaxation of the Covid-19 rules from the 29th allowed people to 'stay local' rather than 'stay at home'. Since this change coincided with the start of a three day mini-heatwave, with the highest temperatures seen in March in the UK since 1968, I decided to take a rather loose definition of 'local' and indulge myself in a bird watching blitz, visiting RSPB Lakenheath Fen on the 30th and then devoting a whole day on the 31st (when the temperature reached 24C down the coast at Cromer) to exploring the North Norfolk coast between RSPB Titchwell Marsh and Holkham Gap. In the process I added dozens of species to my UK year list, including lots of waders and a good selection of very early passage migrants (for example black redstart) and summer visitors (sedge warbler, willow warbler, garganey and sandwich tern). A cuckoo, which sang briefly near Burnham Overy Staithe on the 31st, was my earliest record of this species. I was particularly keen to add lingering winter visitors to my list. Six red-breasted mergansers at Titchwell was a good start, but far more impressive were the 2,000 plus common scoters in Holkham Bay! A single velvet scoter, photographed in flight, was identified later although, having failed to see or identify the bird at the time, I chose not to add it to my UK list. I recorded 88 species on the 31st (80 seen) and my UK list stood at a healthy (considering the circumstances) 151 at the end of the month.
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