Escape to the Country

Cabin Fever had taken hold, and I was bored watching the resident male Blackcap scaring off all comers from the feeders, getting fatter by the day (both the Blackcap and myself). A flythrough by half-a-dozen Waxwings was a pleasant but brief excitement.

So a chance to escape was taken gladly today, with the first stop at the rifle range. Plenty of gulls were roosting on the rocks, with Great Black-Backs, Herrings and Commons dotted amongst 200 Black-Headed Gulls. It was too cold to look closely.

Along the path, two Green Woodpeckers bounced along in front of me, looking nervously around like........ um, two Australian opening batmen, perhaps?

A slow, meandering drive through the Ash Levels gave good sightings of large numbers of Fieldfares and Redwings, to Stodmarsh, where most of the water was still frozen.

Duck numbers were high, with more arriving all the time in large flocks, the Teal twisting in formation and flashing light and dark like waders.
A Bittern flapped lugubriously over the reeds in front of me, looking large with its feathers fluffed out - I could have tried for a photo, but the sight was so impressive the thought didn't cross my mind.