Brambling

A trip to Foulshaw Moss this morning. The main pic is a brambling, a winter visitor who will soon be crossing the North Sea back to Scandinavia. His head will darken as he acquires his breeding plumage.

The extras are a distant view of the Scot’s pine, atop which a pair of Ospreys have their nest. It’s a big structure. He arrived back from Africa a week or so ago, she arrived on Wednesday. It’s not that clear, but visible are two film cameras sitting either side of the nest (a live webcam feed means the breeding progress can be followed 24/7), and the female bird just to the right of the left hand camera. The second extra is a mass of tadpoles. There were tens of thousands of them.

This has been a really difficult day.

Early on, Dad fell in the living room. My sister called Careline and six hours later the paramedics arrived. All eventually OK.

And then three quarters of the way around Foulshaw my sister video called. She had had a call from the hospital and it’s not looking good for Mum.