A cold breeze whips across the park this morning, making it feel very cold this morning. I head out to south field to see the cows and check their electric fence, which I find needs a new battery. As a I check the fence over head a small flock of Meadow Pipits bounce there way across the field. While from somewhere in the copse a dramatic Black Bird calls out its alarm call at my presence and hurries away in a blur of wings.
A jay crosses the path ahead of me bright blue steaks and white behind making the bird stand out. A Carion Crow bursts from a patch of scrub, as it fly’s away I notice a bright red oval berry in its beak, probably a rose hip. Old Mans Beard covers the tops of Blackthorn, the fluffy seed heads looking like snow on the branches.
A tiny head pokes out of the wall between oxeye and field 10. The little Wren comes out of its hiding hole in the wall to shout from the top of the wall and slowly make its way along the top of the wall, calling and waggling its tail the whole time.
In the gully the below the movement of tiny birds catches my eye, though the sun behind them makes it hard to see them through my binoculars. They move slowly along jumping from tree to tree, until I can clearly tell it’s a flock of Long Tailed Tits.
Dropping in to see the bird ringers, they tell me about their quiet morning, with only a handful of birds caught. The usual suspects, Black Birds and Song Thrushes as well a Red Wing. While I’m there they catch a Linnet, believed to be a young male as it has flecks of red in its check feathers, which will fill in with age.