Grey wagtail

Last night, while I was just catching up with journals (and shortly after reading about Sarah Horrigan's disastrous few days) I started feeling a bit queasy. 'Psychosematic!' I told myself, but decided to take myself up to bed just in case. Unfortunately, it turned out that I too had winter vomiting virus, though luckily it wasn't too severe and only lasted a few hours. However, I have felt a bit tired and delicate today!

This meant that I unfortunately missed the period of early morning sunshine. By the time I felt well enough to take the dogs out it had clouded over, and by the end of our walk it was raining. We only had a relatively short stroll, but had good views of a heron.

Just as we were approaching the car I spotted a grey wagtail hopping around the edge of the rowing lake. These turn up for a while most winters. At one time they were mainly a wintering species in East Anglia, but over the last few years there have been more breeding records. They're jaunty little birds, with a bright yellow rump and a greyish back. This one wouldn't let me approach too closely, so this has been heavily cropped. Considering it was taken in the rain, it turned out clearer than I expected.

I managed to summon up the strength to do a bit in the garden this afternoon, and was excited to see a red kite gliding overhead. Unfortunately it was quite high and the photos I took weren't up to much. It was a good day for garden birds, with both goldcrest and wren foraging amongst the leaves. I also watched the wren hovering to catch winter-gnats, almost in the manner of a spotted flycatcher, something I've never seen before.