Great Western Coffee Shop

Regular pigeons, wood pigeons and collared doves.  Crows, magpies and jackdaws.  Robins, squirrels and more. Quite amazing what wildlife we have in our garden.   It's always been there in our case; just that without trips to London, Swindon, Taunton or Bristol I have longer to observe it.  But elsewhere the lack of people travelling around has allowed wild and semi-domesticated animals to come to places normally too busy with people for them - geese in York and goats in Llandudno.   There are other too - from around the world, see CN Traveller (https://www.cntraveller.com/gallery/animals-cities-lockdown)

What have you seen in your garden / town/ city that you don't normally see?

As far as Exeter city centre is concerned the answer would be Police Foot Patrols.  ;D

(Not sure if they qualify as wildlife).

Our daily walk takes us into the nearby footpaths,  fields and along part of the old Bridport branch, though the latter is rather popular with other walkers and cyclists.
It has been one of the benefits of the current situation that we have time to observe the way the season develops; the sequence of plants flowering.
The highlights have been seeing deer at close range, around 100m, a fox slinking through the field and the noise of the bird song, no longer having to compete with the traffic.

Don't get much in our Reading postage stamp. Quite a lot over.

I am always fascinated watching the Red Kites wheeling over. They appear to be having a hard time from the gulls, which are more obvious (and stroppy?).

Magpies are common, I always have to look up the saying "One for ..."

Jays are around as well.

Bumble bees are already active.

Apart from the bird life I have tadpoles in my pond, bumble bees, hover flies and, according to my neighbour, a local fox

Foxes aplenty in my neck of the woods. Frogs have found the pond I installed in the back garden last year but were already present beforehand. I'm very pleased that bats appear from spring every year and spend a lot of time flying over the garden. Newts have been spotted in a neighbours garden so I'm wondering if they'll discover my pond any time soon. The big anticipation is for badgers in my garden. They have been spotted locally by more than one credible source and may already have visited for all I know....perhaps a shop bought motion sensitive night time camera might resolve that one.
I've got a lot of allotments, parkland and some wooded areas surrounding me which seems to make my Bristol suburb attractive to wildlife. This summer's project? Bird boxes.


Edit: At certain times of year, very late at night or early in the morning, I've heard the shrill calls of some of the seasonal Uni Student annual visitors returning from their nocturnal activities.... or used to at least!

Two former colleagues from the firm I have just left and I have set up a Whatsapp group to share what we are seeing. I do "cheat" a little, in that my exercise is around a the surrounding rural area, so my catchment is neither strictly rural nor garden. It is though nice to share some of the wildlife here with them.

My "home office" is by our bird feeders, so Great Spotted Woodpeckers, Nuthatches and squabbling Goldfinches distract me from my work. And of course like many in the Thames Valley we have Red Kites around - a real conservation success. There seem to be more Hares on the local fields this year, I have recorded 9 species of butterfly, the damselflies are beginning to emerge and two "iconic" flowers of the area - Fritillary and Loddon Lily, have put in their appearances. Thank goodness for the improvement in the weather in recent weeks that means we can enjoy them all!

There will certainly be more mammals exploring our towns, though many already do - deer, for instance, can often be glimpsed in areas of Bristol and Bath quite close to the centre at the right times of day (which will normally be dawn).

Changes in other wildlife, though, it will be more difficult to disentangle whether cause is lack of people or the glorious spring we are having.

I've certainly seen more butterfly species this spring than normal, but that will be due to the weather. We have been having lunch in our garden every day and always accompanied by an orange tip butterfly flittering past, which I've rarely seen here before.

Our garden pond seems to be teeming with newts this year. Most years I might see a couple occasionally, but this spring I've seen up to 8 at any one time, and there will undoubtedly be many more in there.

We've had a population of slow worms here since we moved in, but the many cats in the area sadly keep their numbers down, and in bad years I've not seen them at all. This year I've found them active in the compost heaps most times I look, with both adults and young.

The blossom was very early this year, and today I saw the first plum forming, so I'm looking forward to a lot of fruit.  :)