Fate...

A late blip tonight....Thursday is a very busy day! More willow clearing at the nature reserve, followed by ten-pin bowling and then an interesting talk on bird photographs in magazines this evening, with some suitably stunning images. My head is whirling!

My image today was sneaked in while cooking tea. Yesterday, on our walk by the river, Chris and I came across a pile of beautifully patterned feathers - tawny, black and white. We had our suspicions as to the victim, but I brought some home for confirmation. Rather sadly the feathers belonged to a woodcock - probably the same one that I had seen fly off twice during the winter. We weren't sure what killed it, but there was a mustelid dropping carefully placed on top, which made us wonder whether a mink was responsible.

The woodcock is a large bulky wading bird with short legs, and a very long straight tapering bill. It's largely nocturnal, spending most of the day in dense cover. Most of the birds in the UK are residents; in the autumn birds move to the UK from Finland and Russia to winter here. The breeding population has been falling recent years, perhaps because of less habitat as conifer plantations become too mature for woodcocks to find open enough breeding areas while in winter it is widespread in lowland areas. Because they spend a lot of time resting on the ground they are quite vulnerable to predators - a sad end for a beautiful bird.