Thursday March 2

We are still not at our best.

I decided to walk around Arrow Valley Lake this morning, and spent a somewhat disappointing hour there seeing a Little Egret, a Goosander, and 16 Great Crested Grebes on the lake.

A Raven was, according to my Birdtrack statistics, the first I had seen at the locality.

I was almost back at the car, without having felt inspired to get my camera out, when I heard a Mistle Thrush. I followed the rattle to find two Mistle Thrushes and 23 Redwings hunting worms on the close-cropped parkland sward.

Mistle Thrush

Back home, literally on my doorstep, I had the frustrating experience of seeing a possible first-winter Common Gull dip below the level of the rooftops never to reappear. It would have been a house tick if I could have been sure.

Cup half empty today.