Cormorant, Treecreeper and Tetnus!

Enough sunshine today to tempt me outside, just the short distance to Figham Common. Walking along the river flood defenses I could see that many of the fields to the east were flooded by a few centimetres of water. I expected to see some birds feeding on these such was the extent of the flooding - but nothing. I can only imagine that these fields which are usually used for sheep receive too much fertilizer and flood too infrequently for the invertebrates that wading birds such as Lapwings favour.

A Cormorant was in the river and must have found a very good fishing spot because it refused to fly away, even when I was only a few metres away - it simply continued to fish, catching something every 20 seconds or so.

The bushes and shrubs at the far end of the common were alive with Greenfinches, Chaffinches, Blue Tits, Great Tits and Long-tailed Tits, with lots of Blackbirds foraging under a row of mature beech trees; but just one Redwing and no Fieldfares. Interesting to me was a Treecreeper calling ina hawthorn bush, having seen one in the unlikely position of in a lone bush in the middle of flooded grass the last time I was at Figham. This location was not so wierd, but this bird seems to have decided that 10 beech trees and some hawthorn scrub constitues a woodland.

Plenty of Skylarks were singing, a few Reed Buntings seemed to be pairing and a nice male Yellowhammer was almost singing - he must think that spring is here already.

On my way back to the car I managed to slip in the mud and rip the skin on my left hand on a piece of barbed wire. The spike went right in and I was caught on the fence. When I unspiked myself I noticed that the barb was not only rusty but covered in cow's hair and mud. Having not received a tetnus injection for 12 years I had the inconvenience of going to the doctor for an injection. Amazingly I was in and out in under 5 minutes having had the injection. Wow! This goes a small way towards restoring my faith in the NHS. There is still a long way to go though as they messed up my hernia operation last year.