Redshank

It took until I arrived home to work out what this chap was.  It's another bird I don't expect to see on our side of the valley - and it's a first for my journal.  I was on the other side again today though and enjoyed watching it stand statuesque on a long stone wall that we were following.

We did a beautiful new short loop that ended, 20 yards from the car, with an epic muddy stile to lift seventeen kilos of wriggling psycho dog over.  My whole outfit has gone in the wash.  We made it but we won't be repeating it!  

There was so much birdlife to see this morning, from a buzzard and a sparrowhawk to a flock of fieldfares, maybe gathering to go home, a pair of stonechats and a confident pied wagtail.