Winter returns but a flash of yellow brightens the day

The Safari was thwarted in our  attempt to have an afternoon at the nature reserve and the scattered blustery showers will have dropped something interesting for sure.

We checked the Bird Club website at a little after 5.00pm to find that there had indeed been some migrants dropped. The best of which weren't on the nature reserve they'd missed it by about half a mile and ended up in a field of cattle.
At first we couldn't find them, the cattle that is not the birds, they were sheltering round a corner out of site behind a thick hedge in a dip.
Scanning the field, especially the drying muddy wallow, we soon found plenty of Meadow Pipits and  a few Pied Wagtails with a good handful of White Wagtails thrown in for good measure.

It was a rural idyll, muddy cattle grazing in a windswept field with Swallows swooping round them and wagtails flitting from under their hooves and noses. If the wind hadn't been so strong we'd have heard the tearing of the grass and smelt their warm 'homely' smell and all the while a Skylark tried its best to sing over the increasing gale.

Then we spotted one - how on earth can they hide? The flitting around under one of the cows was one of the reported three Yellow Wagtails (136). It took a while to find a second and we didn't get to three!

What little stunners! It's such a shame we have to twitch them round these parts these days, a sad proof that there's something horribly wrong in our local countryside.

Where to next? well that wind is certainly picking up, Little Gulls and a Kittiwake, or more terns on the nature reserve tomorrow - we won't be there to see whatever turns up but we will be looking at Patch 2.

In the meantime let us know what's really too bright for your outback.