And (and, and) you put the load right on me

 OK. I'm getting old.

Not past it yet, but getting there.

I went out early this morning in the dark, fog and rain to see if the Bewick's Swans that were sighted yesterday evening were still around. As they were last seen over the north side against the reed bed I took the scope as the only place to see them from is the south side.

Off I went in waterproofs, Muck boots, bins round my neck, rucksack with DSLR camera on my back, tripod with scope over my shoulder - feeling a bit weighed down.

My normal, unladen weight is about 12 stone (76 kg).

My Weight with carrying this lot was 14 stone (89 kg) - I know because when I got home I asked Lin to bring the scales into the garage so I could weigh myself before and after I'd divested myself of all the stuff 🤣😂 no wonder I felt my age today! Some of the weight was rain of course but the rest was clothing and gear.

Did I get a result from all this Sherpa-like activity? What do you think...

Poor visibility to say the least at the Mere today

I stayed with Jon for a while hoping things would improve, and they did for about 2 minutes when we could at least see our feet, but then it closed in again. I wandered off to the hide, hoping against hope that by the time I got there visibility would have got better - it didn't though. At least I saw a few Mallard, Coot, Goldeneye, Tufties, Wigeon and Mute Swans within about 70 yards of the hide, which is more than I saw on the south side.

On the way I saw a flock of birds get up from the stubble and land in a hedgerow. Through the murk I made out they were Redwing (with a few Yellowhammer, Chaffinch and Reed Bunting too), so I took a few photos for the record. I counted them when I came back an hour later as they left a tree in dribs and drabs and got 59. Two Mistle Thrush as well, but no Fieldfare though.

Misty Redwing in the hedgerow

Not such a good image - but when you clean it up it's not as bad.

Redwing, Yellowhammer, Chaffinch

Wider angle of same hedgerow

I will certainly be looking into getting a lighter camera rig and possibly a lighter scope in the new year. I'd already sort of decided a smaller camera was on the cards but today has decided me. Anyone want a Canon 7DMkII with Sigma 150-600mm lens 😢

It's Been A Long, Long Time. Hasn't It?

32 days in fact. I've been out and about every day but not far and not with my camera usually, for reasons I won't bore you with.

However it's time for another update before I forget what the heck has been going on.

The most recent event of note was of course Storm Arwen that wreaked so much havoc over the country - not least on my old mate Dave, who suffered days without power in Coniston. We had an outage of a few hours but that was nothing in comparison.

I walked through Wassand Wood this morning for the first time since the storm 8 days ago and saw trees down Here, There and Everywhere. Two of them are over the path to the hide:

A broken oak tree over the path

The remainder of the oak tree

One of the large pine trees blew down and over the path

There is no immediate rush to move these of course as there is little activity worth noting on the Mere or in the wood these days, and anyone who really wants to get to the hide can still do so - I did 😂😂

The beach has been almost devoid of interesting wildlife too over the past month, with just a few Sanderling along the tide line to maintain some level of worth-looking-at-ness. The gulls are perused with the hope that something different may show up, but it hasn't yet. I haven't even seen a Turnstone yet through the rest of November and December to date.

Single Sanderling on the beach

There was a sighting of a Dunnock on the beach, checking out a washed up lobster pot though. I hoped it was a Rock Pipit when I first saw it, but of course it wasn't 🙄

Dunnock inspecting a lobster pot

On the cliffs I came across a Song Thrush that looked a bit different. Eventually I worked out that it had the upper mandible of its bill missing. It seemed to be doing OK without it, it didn't look undernourished or ill and bounced along like a normal thrush would.

Song Thrush with upper part of its bill missing

The flock of birds in and around the set aside field is always a sight worth seeing and checking for something different. I saw a couple of Lesser Redpoll feeding on Great Willowherb seed heads earlier in the week but haven't seen them since. Here's a list of species seen in the area and maximum counts:

2 Lesser Redpoll

6 Yellowhammer

3 Brambling

18 Chaffinch

c.30 Goldfinch

4 Bullfinch

c.80 Linnet

8 Tree Sparrow

c.30 Reed Bunting

Brambling

Brambling

Yellowhammer

Reed Bunting

Chaffinch