Glum

Pavilion Gardens, Buxton 

I'd had one of those night's sleeps where you lie awake and become aware of the approach of dawn, which is not what you want in February. It was a dark, cold grey morning becoming a darker, greyer lunchtime. Each time I looked out of the window there would be eight sparrows on the feeders, but not the same sparrows each time. A couple of times the silver-cheeked cock would be there, another time a dark, steel grey cock and there was a fleeting appearance by one of the very sandy coloured hens. The other birds were keeping very low profiles.

Over on the school playing fields three dozen black-headed gulls joined the handfuls of herring gulls and lesser black-backs in the lunchtime frenzy. An hour later all was quiet: a dozen woodpigeons and seven magpies were feeding on the grass while a huge herring gull supervised them. It was such a big bird that I had to stop and look at it three times to convince myself it really was a herring gull.

I was going to go over to Etherow Country Park to take photos of mandarin ducks in lousy light then I pointed out to myself that this is becoming a reflex habit. So I headed out to Buxton to take photos of mandarin ducks in lousy light because I've not been over there yet this year. As it was the light was very lousy and the mandarin ducks were in skittish mood, flying about chasing each other around the trees and whistling loudly. Or lewdly, perhaps. So no pictures. But I had a brisk walk round as the robins sang and goldfinches twittered in the rain. It was a very fine-looking roebuck watching the train go by as we approached Disley on the way out.