Fieldfare

A Fieldfare, member of the Thrush family, distinctive and distinguished by its grey head. They're not normally seen in gardens, but with the fields snowed and iced over this chap has been coming for the last few days. They're actually on the red list with the RSPB, and are winter visitors from Scandinavia. Nice to see something different in the garden, which we certainly got today. We saw the usual blackbirds, pigeons, collared doves, robins, sparrows, magpies, blue tits and crows, but were also treated by some bullfinches and (unfortunately appearing just before I got back from a trip out to photograph the offending pothole from yesterday's tale) a Great Spotted Woodpecker.

Oh, and chickens. Obviously.

Anyway, not a particularly festive or 'celebratory' shot. Christmas was always the big thing in my family growing up, with New Year just an after-thought really. It's strange how an arbitrary day can bring about people looking to make changes in their life, something I'm not immune to, but I'm not all that fussed about 'bringing in' the New Year. Meeting with friends on Sunday afternoon at the Whisky Society will be an altogether more enjoyable evening than trying to fight to a bar or ponder how to get home in a hammered state without paying triple fare on a taxi.

But all that said I've still tried to start the year on a positive note, re-assessing plans, and what went right in 2009 that I can build on. And we've started looking at holidays already... That always helps...