The Noisy Stand

I've been lazy this afternoon, utterly lazy. Guilty lazy. Curl up under a duvet and watch Star Trek lazy. Put off eating lazy. Only do the tidying at the last minute lazy.

But the morning was different, despite the the delay caused by the attentions of this young lady.

Managed to get out for a good 11km run today, out of my trailies and into my old road shoes for the first time in a while, as this was to be a strictly tarmac run through Hawton and Farndon, on a chilly but bright day, with yet another roaring westerly blasting along.

The road from Hawton and Farndon is not a particularly pretty one, and is often prone to a spot of fly tipping, but today, it was where all the action was. For as I reached halfway, a good size flock of lapwing, a much rarer bird than when I was a child, took off from a field on the right, and struggled across the road into the wind giving me a great view of their piebald plumage and broad, swept back wings.

I could even see their faces as the breeze froze them in the sky, and I swear one was looking straight at at me from his lofty vantage point, wondering why the chap on the ground was going faster than he was for a change.

Then I saw a smallish flock of fieldfare cross the road in the same direction, white breasts catching the low sun, followed by a larger squadron of starling. I was busy listening to Radio 4, and was wondering why the "Face to Face" interview was taking place outside, when I realised the birdsong wasn't coming from the radio, it was coming from the stand of trees to my left the birds had flown in to.

When I took my earphones out, the noise from the stand was deafening! The chatter was mainly coming from what turned out to be a flock of several hundred birds and was probably in Starlingish in the main, with a selection of sci-fi tweeps standing out from the cheepy chit chat.

Even as a large number of birds flew back across the road, it was still very noisy in there. Those fieldfare were the first I have seen this winter.

After turning North East with the wind behind me, I rewarded myself with a cup of tea at Rumbles on the Sconce Park, my favourite little cafe in town.

Si

All text and images copyright CreamCrackeredNature 09.12.15