Jackdaws

Today has been clear and light-filled, though for me the early mornings are always the best time of the day. After the bright, gaudy colours of yesterday's sunset blip, the morning hues were subtle and subdued. Mist was clinging to the stacked low, wooded, whaleback limestone hills as we looked eastwards across from Silverdale Road below the Knott. The sun had climbed above the woodland and was cutting through the mist rolling up from the low ground to Arnside Tower Farm. A small flight of jackdaws was heading back towards the tower. 

This was before Mr McSpreader drenched the fields below me in slurry, and this evening the agricultural pong is inescapable outside. Just to puncture the ethereal illusion.

Later in the morning I spent an hour or so at Leighton Moss, seeing my first Cetti's warbler of the year and hearing the explosive song of several other Cetti's in different parts of the reedbeds. I must have been more than usually grumpy though, as I was finally driven away after ten minutes in Griesdale Hide trying not to listen to two loud-voiced blokes boasting about their bird photography in a dialogue of the deaf.

Much more satisfying was lunch at Wolf House with Wifie, followed by a walk around Heald Brow and Jenny Brown's Point. A belated Valentine's Day celebration. Gus was with us of course, but he has had a tummy upset today, and he's been a bit off form. Hopefully he's settled now, and a trip to the wood in the small hours of the night will not be necessary.