Where did the sun go ???

Just having a very large glass of wine for medicinal purposes to treat my shock !!

 Blogger has just uploaded all my photos within ten minutes !!!!

 

Not a bad day at work today. The weather was very overcast though, so not one good photo, but plenty of little birds to watch. Only a brief glimpse of one of the foxes on the grassy bank, and it wasn't in the mood to have its photo taken today.

 

The Linnets were back, there were Fieldfares and Redwings as usual, and the Goldcrest was showing well. What a shame the sun wasn't !!! I could have got some nice pics of the Linnets today, I got within 6 feet of them at one point, but the light was not on my side.

 

Other birds I saw today were the usual pairs of Blue Tits, Great Tits, Dunnocks, Collared Doves and Robins. The Woodpigs are still fighting and the Carrion Crows are still gathering in groups rather than pairing off. Large numbers of Cormorants were flying over today, some were in groups of five !

 

 In Star and Stevies paddock there is a bank of brambles, and every day for the last few shifts Ive been at work, there have been three male Blackbirds strutting their stuff in front of the brambles. They keep a distance between them, but the 'testerone' display behaviour is pretty obvious. There have been another two males doing the same thing on the wall in the work yard that separates the fishing lake grounds from ours. They daily strut along the wall, one at each end, then when they meet in the middle, they both fly back to the beginning and do it again.

 

I managed to squeeze in three visits to the paddocks today in between work duties. On my first visit Star gave a loud whinny and came running over to see me. I felt incredibly privileged until I realised her owner hadn't yet been in to feed her, so Star was sizing me up for an easy snack. Today I had no carrots or pears, I'd forgotten them and left them at home. However I got to have a quite intimate cuddle with Star though. She let me put both arms around her neck and stroke her between the ears, and she escorted me up to the end of the paddocks, before getting bored and going back to grass grazing. Nelson was as attentive as ever. He and Kate always come over to say 'hullo'. Stevie wasn't as friendly today. He is an old boy, and I think he knew I didn't have any carrots with me, so therefore couldn't be arsed to trot over from the other side of the field. So full of guilt, I have left the bag of carrots right by my front door so I don't dare forget them tomorrow.

 

The Goldcrest was in its usual shrubby bush. Thought I had glimpses of two birds today, but the light was so poor I couldn't be sure. I had to lighten this photo quite a lot just to show it IS a Goldcrest, and not a black silhouette.

Its not just Pied Wagtails that like to pick their way through horse poop. This Robin was quite happy to lunch on a pile too

Lovely large flock of around 20 Linnets were flitting around by the skips. Again, this photo has had to be lightened quite a bit. Apologies for the awful quality.

Still a few Fieldfares around. Counted 12 today.

and at least seven Redwings.