Whether? or Weather?

Was pencilled in to give a ringing demonstration to the local Watch group at their base in the Marston Vale. Ha,ha.

Nineteen millimetres of rain from midnight to noon and a Force 4-5 northerly put the kibosh on that happening! That's the Renhold Brook opposite my house - running full to bursting.

Watched the birds coming and going, feeding in the back garden instead. It's a start of a new week for the local garden bird survey. As I'd never done it before, I dug out my ST80HD and tried to read a few rings. That's harder than you think. I did manage to "observe" a Goldfinch and a Dunnock, both of which I had trapped a fortnight ago.

I did also have a go at digiscoping - and decided that it's a bit more difficult than you first imagine. My camera is an old Fugi F610 compact, which I just stuck in the rubber surround to the eyepiece.

The first shot was of one of the five Greenfinch feeding on the "waste" sunflower hearts that the Goldies scatter everywhere. The 'Greens' have only just started to reppear in the last few days, so I suspect that there is a bit of return migration going on - at last.

Here is the brook from the same spot - after the water level had subsided back down to a more normal winter level:

Let's hope that that is the last of it!