Large flock of Redwing pecking over a field of pasture near home. Lovely birds with great markings, especially on the head. Not sure what they were getting to eat as the ground was frozen solid.
Lapwings are back! Scores of them, doing their squeeky, flying, twisty thing, on and over a few fields heading to the fell at Eggleston this morning.
Am Yisrael Chai
On today's bike ride i saw what looked like some kind of game bird... i expect it was very common, but i wouldn't be able to identify it... had a very distinct "bright" brown feathers on it's breast, almost looking orange-y in colour. Made an awful racket like it was trying to scare something away, flapping it's wings like crazy hovering a few feet above the ground.
Also a grey squirrel, and a dead badger.
How big was it Travs - pigeon sized, or chicken sized?
Sounds to me possibly a cock pheasant, perhaps squaring up to a rival?
Visibility good except in Hill Fog
Cormorant at Nanpantan reservoir, keeping an eye on all the anglers. Presumably if any angler had taken out a fish and not put it back, he would have had to contend with the sharp end of a beak.
In his lifetime he suffered from unreality, as do so many Englishmen.
Jorge Luis Borges