A tree, a train and a parliament...

More wall painting today - with any luck I've now completed all the red walls - which is a relief as the paint seems to get everywhere!

Inbetween coats I took the dogs up to Castor Hanglands for a change of scene. The limestone grassland was being grazed by sheep, but they were not as photo savvy as yesterday's Longhorn cattle, and kept a safe distance from me. When I first saw them, I thought they were Herdwicks, but I've never seen them this far south before. Now I've checked the Google images I'm pretty sure I was right.

I was hoping for some bird photographs, but though I managed to get very close to a marsh/willow tit, which was feeding on a hawthorn berry, it was at a time when the sun had retreated behind a cloud and there was no light at all. Further on in the walk I came across my first really large gathering of fieldfares and redwings. There must have been over 100, but they were wary and stayed in the tops of the ash trees.

On the way back to the car I heard a raucous chorus and noticed a huge parliament of rooks and train of jackdaws taking to the air around one of the old pollarded oaks which are so characteristic of the land west of Peterborough. Rooks are most usually seen in flocks in open fields, or feeding in small groups along a roadside. Rooks are very sociable birds, and you're not likely to see one on its own. They feed and roost in flocks in winter, often together with jackdaws.

I like the way that this landscape spans the centuries. The oak is probably several hundreds of years old and part of the historic landscape, upon which the power lines impose a more geometric pattern. And love them or hate them, we all rely on electricity to a frightening degree!