January

I'm trying to pretend that everything's normal... which of course it isn't.  This is not in anyway denigrating the appalling situation that we are all, as a nation - as a global community, experiencing at the hands of covid.  While countless people suffer at the hands of this terrible virus.  The tireless and selfless work carried out by our healthcare professionals - generally going unnoticed behind poorly manufactured PVC masks, and a mainstream media that still continues to extol the talentless.  And I'm pretending that everything's normal.

To compound this misery, January is supposed to be a bit of chore, why is January the saddest month?  Why is January so depressing?  Blue Monday... it goes on.  Well I like January - but only if the sun is shining and I can head to a reservoir or large waterbody to see wildfowl in all their post-moult splendour.

I headed over to Broom GPs on New Years Day, it's my not quite local, local patch but a good opportunity to get the year list going.  It was a dull January day, the kind of day that make January's gloomy.  Not the January days that help me support my case of it being a great month. 

There wasn't much there to restore any hope to what will be an arduous month, apart from the usual assemblage of wildfowl, half a dozen Common Snipe and a few Lapwing.  It was a start anyway.

Now this is why Januarys are great.  The 2nd was absolutely glorious.  The sky was blue, the sun was shining, and I wanted to get out there.  More local stuff - and a short trip over to Meadow Lane CP - close to Priory in Beds.

There were many people out and about enjoying the winter sunshine - we all need our exercise and mental stimulus.  We all need to keep our distance.

Heading round the reserve, a Great Egret flew gracefully toward Priory as I arrived which was a little fortuitous.  Plenty of wildfowl filled the flooded area with a lone Russian White-fronted Goose associating with the local Canada's rather accentuating its diminutive size.  A lovely bird - which was just a single example of a countrywide influx from Siberia.   Also in the area was a typically active Chiffchaff darting around a bare hawthorn. 

On the way back, I popped into Clifton where the two Cattle Egret were still present in the cattle pens north of the road.  Seeing three species of Egret in a day, in Beds, on the 2nd of Jan, was slightly bizarre.

I'm trying to pretend that everything is ok - and today it really did feel ok.