Redwing

This morning whilst it was a little brighter/less gloomy than it has been for the past few days we decided to make the most of the chance to walk by the river to find Blips. For once I took my proper camera with me and - even rarer - I did not take a single shot on my phone.

We saw a small flock of birds in the top of a tree. I thought they may be thrushes but Brian said that because there were several together they were more likely to be fieldfares or redwings. There's no red visible so I'm assuming it is a fieldfare.*

Whilst I was happy to see the birds, I was less happy to see sights like that in my extra. Due to the recent high rainfall the water in the river and the drain that runs parallel had overflowed onto the surrounding ground, bringing with it a large quantity of rubbish that had gone into the river. There were many bottles (both plastic and glass), fast food cartons footballs and dog-toys as well as other sundry debris. It does the wildlife in the river and along the bank no good, and could end up in the sea.

This evening we will go to a local-ish pub to bring in the New Year. I won't be sorry to see the back of 2023, it was one of the toughest of my life and has not been good in a general world sense either, with ongoing warfare in so many places, poverty and an ever-growing gulf between the very wealthy and the rest of us.

 I'm not gullible enough to think that the recycling/cutting up for other purposes of an old calendar and hanging a new one will bring about a miraculous change of fortunes, personally or globally but we have to hold on to some hope and savour our blessings where we find them, don't we?

* Update - after much Googling Brian has now concluded that this is in fact a redwing due to the markings around its eyes!