Heronimo!

When I drove past Shottermill Ponds yesterday I noticed a heron fishing there so, as it's such a lovely day today, I nipped over with my camera this morning to see if it was around. I'd just sat down on the bench in the sun when, amazingly, the heron flew down right in front of me. So I had a very enjoyable half hour stalking him round the ponds.

Still feeling a bit coldy today but trying to ignore it. To make matters worse, I was woken at 3 or 4 am this morning by Polly barking and then spent a couple of hours listening to scratching above in the loft. It was definitely something bigger than the mice we've had before and, having spoken to a pest controller this morning, I can't help but feel it's a rat :( He said that if you hear it during the night it's either a mouse or a rat and if you hear it early morning and evening it's a squirrel or something like that. Even allowing for Roger's regular visits to the bird feeder and the family of starlings that have lived in the soffits at the front of the house for several years now, it still seems that a rat is most likely. We already have bait in place and, unpleasant as it is, the pest controller was hopeful that said rodent will meet its demise in the next few days. If not, however, he said to call him back on Monday and he'll come and have a look.

So anyway, I have been conducting an informal survey of the dawn chorus this week and can report that it started at 5:05 am on Saturday, 5:04 am on Sunday and 4:59 am this morning.