The Best Made Plans Of Mice And Men Often Go Astray

I tried to go out Saturday morning but the heavy squally showers wouldn't allow me to, several attempts were made, but each time I had to beat a hasty retreat indoors. My plan was to go down to the river, but there was no way I was going to stand exposed on the saltmarsh in the cold wind and rain. Perhaps I'm getting softer as I get older, or is it just getting wiser?

My plan was top do the same Sunday morning but Ian told me that it was really quiet on the river and he was struggling to put anything in his note book, so I decided that when I went to feed at my farmland bird feeding station I would have a bit of walk round as I hadn't done that for a while.

I knew that I had probably got until 1100 before the forecast rain was due to come in and it actually came in an hour earlier cutting my walk short. I set off on my walk with full cloud cover and a cold 15 mph SSE wind. The feeding station itself was very quiet, perhaps the quietest it has been all winter, with just 22 Chaffinches, a Yellowhammer and 18 Tree Sparrows in attendance. This might also have been the first time that Chaffinches had outnumbered Tree Sparrows.

I headed up the '97 hedge', but there wasn't much doing here, and when I got to the top fields it started raining. I had to abandon my plan to have a look in the plantation and head back along the lane looking in the wet fields as I walked past. Feeding in the wet stubbles were 45 Fieldfares, 33 Skylarks, a Green Sandpiper, 35 Redwings and 15 Corn Buntings. In the field on the opposite side were five Shelducks and I also flushed five Roe Deer from the copse. 

 Shelducks

By the now it was really pouring down and I legged it back to the car. The forecast for the week is a bit grim, but you have to remain optimistic!