Wednesday 17 February
I’ve spent all morning doing a jigsaw. It is one of those activities that casually exercises the brain. It’s the mental equivalent of a long walk; nothing too strenuous, but enough to know you’ve done something and not been idle.
Midway through the half term and the word is that schools will be returning on 8th March but to what extent we’re not completely sure. Probably primary and the exam years of eleven and thirteen. We will find out on Monday when the government presents its road-map out of lockdown.
Just got back from our walk. So, looking forward to it getting warmer and brighter in the weeks and months ahead.
Watched two raptors doing their thing this afternoon. A buzzard hunting rabbits above the slowly greening fields. It would drop then strain to flap it’s wings, lumbering like a duvet being shaken over a bed. Gradually gaining height before soaring and descending again covering a new patch of soil below.
Then across the same field, a kestrel had strayed too close to a murder of crows that were scavenging the soil. One pretty determined bird launched itself from the scattering pack and set out to usher the clearly unwelcome falcon away. The coming together although mostly clumsy looking, as you’d expect from what was effectively a fight, also resembled a 1950’s hop. Nevertheless, it was effective and the corvid prevailed wheeling away and back to the soil and a seat at the high table in the middle of the shadowy cluster of its peers.
On our way back, we waited at the railway crossing in the village. The high speed trains from London to Norwich whizzed past. The barriers lifted allowing us (and the cars) across. But. It really is unnerving crossing a rail track.
The Bald Birder 