Rattus norvegicus

The conjunction of the Equinox, a solar eclipse and a Supermoon has prompted some Christian ministers to believe that the end of the world is nigh. Sometimes I feel we truly are moving back into the Dark Ages. 

We've treated it as a day of celebration. Chris and I were up at six to do the first bird transect of the season at Thorpe Wood - I was really pleased to see and hear a nuthatch, which were absent last year. I then took Alex to work, and returned home to watch the eclipse with the rest of the family and a few friends. There was thin cloud cover, which enabled me to get a few photographs, but I decided not to post mine as there are so many on blipfoto tonight. We also projected the image through binoculars onto a sheet of card, which was surprisingly successful.

The weather remained warm and bright for much of the day, and I spent several hours in the garden, tidying and weeding. In the afternoon I headed off to King's Dyke, and had a good walk, watching bees on the sallow blossom while a marsh harrier soared overhead. The highlight of my walk was hearing the resident bittern booming - I'd forgotten how low and eerie the sound is - a real 'whoomph'.

I stopped in at the hide on my way back to the car, where there where the usual range of birds on the feeders - reed buntings, blue tits, great tits, chaffinches and long-tailed tits. I was hoping that a kingfisher or water vole might appear, but instead a family of three brown rats came out and started feeding on the spilled grain. 

We kept pet rats when the boys were young, and I became very fond of these intelligent and affectionate creatures, who have been shown to laugh when you tickle them. I find it hard to understand why they cause such revulsion in many people, often the same people who love to see water voles. I know that they spread Weil's disease (as a field worker I'm very aware of that risk) but many other creatures also carry diseases. At least the black rat finally seems to have been exonerated from spreading the plague in Europe - this now seems more likely to have been associated with the great gerbil of Central Asia.