Canada goose feather.
A too hot to handle afternoon at Fly Flatts with 19 deg below a light grey sky showing 90 % cloud cover and a poor SE>3 which was,nt enough to keep the masses of flies from the banking and certainly not enough to keep me cool.
Once again waders were everywhere , not taking notice of the boats on the water and a few joggers sprinting along the banking although nothing out of the ordinary other than Redshank, Dunlin and Curlew.
Snipe, Lapwing and Redshank have all bred at the south end this year which is unusual, possibly away from the gulls which always congregate over in the NE corner.
A check on Nab Water Lane produced 1 distant Buzzard and a quick glimpse of a male Stonechat, a species that I have,nt seen at Fly Flatts since the winter when several were always present.
A funny experience on the way home driving down into Bradshaw when I saw a fully fledged but non flying crow in the middle of the road looking very confused. It refused to budge and was in danger of getting wiped out so I stopped and put the hazards on getting a few strange looks from other drivers that had to pull up.
I ushered the bird to the side then as I picked it up to put it over the wall to safety the 2 parent birds came steaming off the church tower like kamikaze pilots crawking and swooping within inches of my head. With the risk of a beak in the jugular vein I gently put the bird over the wall out of harms way where the parents dropped down beside it.
As I turned around to get back in the car I thought I might get a cheer but all I got was a few black looks for holding them up, theres nowt as queer as folk.
BS