Winter Thrushes on the Bicycle

I'm writing this while listening to "Starless"  by King Crimson which is an awesome piece of music...

So after an exhausted day of nothing yesterday - My Black Friday duties totally wiped me out - I decided I needed to make a good go at today, cold or not.

So in the morning I made my way to  the park for a cup of tea on my trusty Rockrider, and then in the afternoon managed to get out for a sunset 25km ride, with a gentle breeze it seemed like a bloody nice thing  to  do.

And I worry I'll get very fat indeed if I don't do it.

So out I went along the cycle path with the low sun lighting up the turbines of the wind farm and reflecting off the solar panel plant. It even made the rubbish tip glow in gold. Rather oddly I thought, the gulls and crows feasting  off the rubbish were flushed by my presence from about 100 metres away, silly feathery things!

It was on this cycle path that I saw my first winter thrushes of the year, flushed from the berry laden hawthorns alongside. Trouble is, with the sun behind them they just looked like black shapes, until they flew past me and I caught a glimpse of pale bellies and grey rumps; fieldfares.

Odd that I should see fieldfare before redwing. Normally the latter are easier to come across just outside of  town in early winter.

So I kept on riding as the sun set, and re-murmarised a flock of about 50 starling who thought they were going to have a peaceful roost in a tree next to the road to Thorpe village.

It was a good ride, and I took a bit of pride in myself for  doing it.

Si

All text and images copyright CreamCrackeredNature 24.11.18

A Murder Overhead

With the clocks going back an hour and thus hastening sunset through the office windows, I'm getting to see all sorts of stuff just before home time.

The other day, some fantastic low level formations of canada geese flew over the car park, honking away against a deep twilight, flying at speed and looking like an air force. I'm not seeing the mass pied wagtail roost yet, but I'm now on the wrong side of the campus.

I will cycle over on my way home, to the trees that they roost in.

What I'm also seeing in large numbers are big flocks of crows -  probably more likely to be rooks than carrions? - heading overhead usually about half an hour before sunset. I don't know they have been spending the day doing, working freshly ploughed fields perhaps, but they are going over in flocks over a hundred strong, cawing away as they fly towards the sun.

The two shots I've got aren't the biggest sky murders I've ever seen, nor the lowest. They aren't easy to  photograph with my mobile.

But it's what's happening up there!

Si

All text and images copyright CreamCrackeredNature 03.11.18

The Crow Road

I've had a fairly non riveting day at work today, involving as it did sorting out our inventory and recording serial numbers of everything. Still, creating a new spreadsheet of 60 or so entries did give me a feeling of having achieved something.

Although my current task of trying to sort out an irritating issue with my spacebar on my Chromebook is even less thrilling. Maybe it's just down to me being a rubbish typist rather than anything else.

I did manage to get outside for a bit today, a quick ten minutes away from my desk to avoid  the setting in of cabin  fever. I watched a very noisy blue tit by my little herb garden. I looked at shafts of sun piercing the clouds.

And I watched one of the bold as brass carrion crows that live on campus, making its way among  the cars looking for discarded sandwiches, chips and the other discarded detritus you find at a large workplace like ours. I've seen a single bread crust lead to a mighty three way tug of war between these smart and successful birds.

They are always watching you though. Trying to figure you out. Wondering when they are going to go the full Hitchcock and take over the world.

Si

All text and  images copyright CreamCrackeredNature13.03.18