November

Autumn has been spectacular. The weather has been really mild and the seasonal colours have been magnificent and lasted really well. We’d become a bit lazy through October and hadn’t been up for our pre-breakfast strolls. The kites have flown and with them the summer visitors: swallows, swifts, linnets. But another round of lockdown kick started us again. And surprise surprise, there are still tons of our old friends out there. The herons are still standing around. The buzzards are more “visible” with the sky clear of kites. Woodpeckers, tree creepers and kestrels are all still here. The mornings turned suddenly freezing this week. However, the sun still comes up and the morning light is glorious. So to start with I’ll post some of the countryside round here in the morning light.

Really worth getting up for. You may remember the nest of kestrels not far from this spot from earlier this year. There are still two at least hanging around the radio mast:

I repaired the roof on the bird house and fixed its broken window. There is food in it and we get the occasional great tit dropping by but in general the open table behind the house is more popular. Crowds of sparrows and tits of all sorts, but the marsh tit is probably rarest here:

The gold finches have been attracted to the garden too:

I hope this brightens your day. I’ll try and catch some more soon 🙂