Yet Another Yet Another Grey Day Thread

What with Christmas messing up work, I ended up with a second day off in the week this week, and again, the forecast was grey but dry. I looked out the window and thought....that's not grey!

I decided on seeing if the Barn Owls were out (10 minutes down the road) and then go see if there were Otters and/or Kingfishers a further 10 minutes down the road... By then there was a definite hint of gloom in the air :o(

I was greeted by Mrs Blackbird

And then a winter thrush flock began to form....Redwing to start

Even the Rabbits were half asleep!!

The Winter Thrush Tree began to fill up

And the Fieldfare began to join

And closer to the ground, a Song Thrush (going by it's brown-ness, not just "v" shaped spots 

This gull flew overhead, and I'm going to label it as a Lesser Back Cracking Gull, coz that's what happened as I leant backwards "CRAAaaaaCK"

This one doubled my seasonal Fieldfare total!

Far more Redwing, but still lagging behind last winter I think

I'd given the owls about an hour to show themselves, and decided that was long enough, so headed to part two... a Little Egret flew by

And then, unusual for Dorset... a 4-legged Gull

On the bank a magnificent Crow

And, even more unusual than a 4 legged gull, a lone Barnacle Goose in the river

Up in the riverbank trees, a change from Blue and Great Tits...a Coal Tit group

And another surprise... a Black Mink caught me unaware

Who could resist the charms of this winking Rook, with a gaping maw!!

If the next lady had kept quite on seeing a dog, no one would have spotted her

Perhaps the females (in the spirit of the ludicrous society norms at present) should be called a Queenfisher? (And no, that is not a serious suggestion)

A couple of pairs of swans were cruising the river... I'll be back later to see if I can catch and territorial disputes 

More of Mrs Kingie

The delicate, splash free, landing of a Mallard

Mrs Kingie dived 3 times, and caught 3 times, in about an hour.... needless to say 1/2000 of a second turned out to be waaaaaaaay too dark in the prevailing light to try and capture the dives, but when she landed again, all was good

She must have seen the Lesser Back Cracking Gull too!!

I think this look says "Ha ha haaaaaa... you'll never get me diving....sucker!!"

And so ended a day with surprises, and iffy light and more surprises, and a Kingfisher! Fabulous!!

Hope you liked it all

I won't be out until after Christmas now, so wishing you all health and happiness for the festive period and beyond

Stay Safe All