Robin

It's been almost a year since I last blipped a robin. That one was in the garden. This one was in Redhills Pasture on the Knott, flitting between the dead bracken (here) and small blackthorn and hawthorn bushes. Those that aren't in garden territories can be less confiding, and this one wasn't allowing me and Gus too close.

These little birds do brighten up the dull winter days, not just with their redbreasts, but with their sweet song, one of the few birds to sing through the short winter days, and sometimes the nights too. As a species that occupies a range of habitats and gets along living beside us, it is one of the relatively small number of our breeding birds that isn't in decline.

I stayed at home to work today. It was great news for Gus, who could snooze on his bed beside me, rather than being confined to the back of the car. I have started feeding the birds in the garden again, but alas I am at risk of feeding them to a cat of unknown provenance, which despite my best efforts to shoo it away, keeps reappearing under the feeders. Another reason, if one were needed, to miss Bob, who had retired from birding activities, but not from defending his territory from intruders - he was good for the birds. Otherwise it was an uneventful day, but the sun did shine for a few hours this morning. It's raining again now.

ps Note on the light, this was the in between time, as the sunshine of the morning was giving way to thickening cloud, the sun was milkily visible through the cloud, not bright enough to throw a shadow.