No chance to see the sea this morning

The Safari didn’t get out early this morning, the motor was due its annual nerve-racking test so it was a much later start than of late for us. Dropping the car off at the garage meant we had to take the tram along the Prom to work, the sea looked like a carpet it was flat calm with the tide just ebbing – perfect for spotting Harbour Porpoises and Grey Seals. Or anything else that happened to be out there. Shame we weren’t able to have a look.

During the morning our colleague looked out of the office window to see a couple of Rabbits grazing on the lawn. It was the same two we’d seen earlier in the week at the opposite end of the grounds. We could tell as one of the pair has an injured left hind leg. We grabbed the camera from its bag and fired of a few shots at an acute angle through the dirty double glazed window. We now have a puzzle. Do they skip quickly across the very open front piazza or have they a network of burrows beneath which could be tricky as large vans drive up and down delivering all manner of things, we wouldn't want one to break through cos the Rabbits had undermined our frontage.

Lunchtime arrived and we went over the road to see the sea. There was lots of it although the tide was no well out. There might have been lots of sea but there was precious little life to be seen on or above it. The main interest was a flock of seven Turnstones, still in their winter plumage, rooting around the pebbles at the top of the beach and the seaweed on the wall. It was all pretty dire so we didn’t stay too long opting for a wander round the grounds with the camera instead.

The feeders that a member of the public kindly keeps topped up have been removed, either by him because it’s ‘summer’ or by numpties unknown. Anyway the lack of food has meant the big flock of House Sparrows has dispersed. Odd ones are about now and then (do they come back to check the food situation?) but it was quiet and the spitting rain wasn’t helping. With our bushes still only just starting to regrow after their severe winter prune there isn’t much habitat to attract a migrant bird dropped by increasingly inclement weather. We probably have little chance of looking out of the back windows to see a Redstart flitting about or opening the car door one morning and hearing a Grasshopper Warbler reeling away but if we don't look and listen we won't see or hear nowt and if we do look and listen there is a chance we'll find something worth seeing...like they say, if you don't get out you won't see nowt or IFYDGOYWSN!
Ever hopeful we did the circuit of the grounds eventually coming across one of the two (three? - really must try to count them properly one day soon) pairs of Dunnocks that live in the not so harshly pruned hedge. 

 Sadly our male Blackbird was found squished on the road at the front yesterday morning; we don’t see the female very often so assume she is/was sitting on eggs. We have reported our casualty to Project Splatter.

Where to next? It’s the weekend and it’s mid-April with some weather about so anything could turn up at any time, will we be ready for it and will we be able to get out to find it???

In the meantime let us know who’s suffering from a gammy leg in your outback