EGB2

It was proper weekend weather today, it started grey with low-lying cloud obscuring the top of the Helm, and in the afternoon, it got worse as persistent rain set in. Gus and I were on the Helm first thing, having taken Wifie to catch a train from Oxenholme for a training course in Carlisle. There wasn't a lot to be seen from the top of the hill, just other dogs and their people emerging out of the cloud, many more than I've been used to seeing on clement days at lunchtimes.

It was the first morning this year that I've missed a walk up Arnside Knott before breakfast. But after his morning nap, Gus was keen to go for a midday ascent before the rain arrived, so the daily sequence remains unbroken since sometime in 2018 (I shall have to check when).

In between times I did the RSPB Big Garden Birdwatch. It was probably my most unproductive one in the last 10 years. In the hour I had only 14 species, the highest count was 6 goldfinches, there was no coal tit, great tit or collared dove. The consolation prize was a male blackcap, the first I've seen this year and only the second this winter. And I almost forgot, there was a field mouse nervously making forays from cover to pick up sunflower seeds below the feeders.

There were only two Gus blips in the whole of 2018, one early on and the other at the end of the year. At least one of his followers (she knows who she is) would prefer more frequent appearances, so we shall try to do better in 2019.