Mingin' weather - stayed in!

The Safari just couldn't be tempted to venture forth today. Wall to wall wet and miserable greyness had us staying indoors. We might have been tempted by the 'Tundra' Bean Geese but there was negative news of them by lunchtime although both Eurasian and Greenland White Fronted Geese had been seen in the area.

In the opposite direction another flock of Pink Footed Geese played host to the Todd's Canada Goose but again nice as one of those might be - it's only a sub-species so we can't add it to our total in our competition with Monika - the thought of peering through a rain soaked field of Pinkies from a steamed up Land Rover wasn't inspiring enough to motivate us. At the last count we had the slenderest of leads but Monika had the added incentive of an attempt at the County Record so by not going out hunting down the Beanies we may well be snatching defeat from the jaws of victory - but there' s still a couple of days birding left before midnight on the 31st.

A very quick round a small part of Patch 1 gave us two Mistle Thrushes flying over and some Dove's Foot Cranesbill in flower, an opening flower bud on one of our neighbour's Forsythia bush and in the Garden at Base Camp the Fuchsia bush has a solitary new flower bud.

We topped up the sunny seed feeder and almost as soon as our back was turned had a Blue Tit, a Chaffinch and a lone Greenfinch; but where are all the Goldfinches that we heard earlier chattering away before they left their roost in the big Holly Tree in one of the gardens a little way up the hill.
A very brief Christmas errand also gave us a Mistle Thrush singing loudly from the top of a tree in the cemetery.

Where to next? Wedding Anniversary tomorrow and a posh nosh out of town might just provide an opportunity for a short safari before we wade into a plate of steak n chips.

In the meantime let us know if the rain eventually stopped in your outback.