Twenty-two Thousand Steps

When I take a few days off work I like to do constructive things with the time.

I like to...

Still, exercise is constructive, right? According to my clever watch I've averaged 9,263 steps per day for the last seven. And I expect today's 22,764 contributed mightily to that figure. A few mid-stride snaps...

I'm pretty sure this is only the second Pochard I've seen locally. By 'locally' I mean anywhere west of the Fleet and east of the Axe patch. A surprisingly scarce bird.

Drake Pochard, looking good.

The Misses Unobtrusive. Both our local Cirl Buntings

When they're in a good mood, the West Bex Cirls are frequently the closest two birds of the bunting flock. And even if they're not together - like they briefly were this morning - there is still a chance of one of them taking pity on the bloke kneeling in the mud, trying to blend in with a fence post...

A late afternoon excursion provided me with a very frustrating moment...

Walking east along a quiet, hedge-lined lane, a hirundine suddenly appeared in front of me and flipped over the hedge and out of view before I could get the bins on it properly. There's an open field on the other side of the hedge, so if I could just find a gap or a gateway I might get a second bite... No gaps ahead, so I turned to look behind me, only to see a second hirundine do exactly the same thing! By the time I'd run to the closest viewpoint (not close) there was no sign of them. I've never seen a hirundine of any flavour earlier than about a week into March, so that was a bit annoying...

Cursing my ill luck, I then came across a surprise group of 6 Golden Plovers. Which felt like a consolation prize...

This was a common enough sight during the February freeze, but I haven't seen any Golden Plovers for a while now.

Those golden-spangled scaps are gorgeous.

Thanks to another handy fence post, the birds had absolutely no idea there was a huge person crouching nearby.

This morning I managed to miss a small flock of 6 Greylags which flew east. Greylag is quite uncommon locally, and of course they would have added another digit to the yearlist that I'm not bothering with. So it would have been nice if I'd seen them. Oh. Hello...what's this?

Well, look at that. Three Greylags heading W at considerable range, having moments earlier passed very close and laughed at my pathetic camera-extraction skills.

I saw this next lot coming a long way off, and was ready...

Unfortunately they weren't Greylags though.

The winter storms have done a pretty brutal job of reprofiling the local beaches, but this sight was an entirely new one for me...

Rough ground at low tide. I had no idea that all this clay and stone was lurking beneath the shingle in places.

Apparently I've seen off more than 3,000 calories today. So this bottle of beer is just a drop in the ocean really. Like the one I finished a few minutes ago...