The day after the storm before and it's suddenly quite mild and I'm overdressed. I decided not to stress myself out by subjecting myself to Sunday standard public transport, especially when everywhere close to hand will still be like a wet sponge.
The usual dozen black-headed gulls were on the school playing field with half a dozen first-Winter herring gulls and an adult lesser black-back. The large gulls vary from day to day and sometimes a few more black-headed gulls will drift in for an hour or two. I wish I could work out whether or not that's the same lesser black-back every day.
The surprise of the day was amongst the group of woodpigeons feeding on the field. Two very young juveniles that still had a lot of squab plumage about them: dull lead grey back and wings, brown rather than plum purple tones to the breast and dull grey heads and scraggy necks. The usual November exodus of woodpigeons hasn't been as marked this year, with odd ones and twos around and about most days, obviously this is what they've been doing to pass the time.
I notice the ring-necked duck is back at the park in St Helens. I wonder if it'll linger over Winter (yes, I'm already worrying about next year's Year List). The long-tailed duck at Marshside has been there a month and seems settled in a cushy billet, it would be nice to get them both in the bag early in January. They'll probably both beggar off overnight now I've said that.
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