Just another damp Saturday

A woodpigeon in the rain

It was one of those frustrating days waiting for a delivery that didn't happen, the frustration being made worse by being given a fourteen-hour delivery window. I honestly would have been happier in the first place waiting an extra couple of days and being able to pick it up at their local store. So I didn't go out.

I couldn't settle to anything so I spent plenty of time staring out of the window as the feathered hooligans demolished another pack of fat balls and a kilo of sunflower seeds. It's no wonder all the stems on the rambling rose are bent over, those sparrows must weigh a couple of hundredweight each.

It rained all day. We had a yellow rain warning, which sounds more unwholesome than it really is, it just means there's a risk of flooding in all the usual places. It didn't look too bad most of the day, I'd have been okay going for a walk in it right up to about half three on the afternoon when the sky went bright white and sheets of rain came down.

Before the deluge I was delighted to spot a couple of chiffchaffs passing through the garden. This time of year they're just passing through, the Winter migrants that join the mixed tit flocks tend to show up late December. These birds were unmistakeably chiffchaffs, bright olive brown with most of the underparts having an orange wash to them (something approaching the html colour "mango"), there's not anything else likely to be that colour round here. For reasons which escape me I always think these very bright birds are juveniles but they're more probably adults in very fresh Autumn plumage and the birds looking like dull editions of Summer adults that are the juveniles. The Winter birds are always dull olive browns and yellows.