Pitsford Water anti-clockwise

 Thu, 2015 Dec 17 10:07 AM Greenwich Mean Time With Gordon, Maureen and Tommy.

Round the reservoir, at a fair pace. Weather dry, and some brightness through the cloud.

On the way round we could see plenty of birds on the water, ducks, swans etc, and of course the occasional human variant of wader.

This was a very sorry find, beautiful, dead and half eaten.Tommy has identified this as a red-legged partridge - a handsome beast.

 I was hoping to catch the lapwings along the causeway, but whether due to the wind or other factors there were none in their usual place. Instead there was a large group of them flying over the water.

 I am not sure if these are Whooper swans - their posture when swimming was more erect than the usual mute swans.

 A heron and a little egret were by this seasonal torrent.

The egret is the more nervous and flew away before long.

 Catkins - early?

Fungi on a log in the car park.

A satisfyingly brisk walk, and a decent sandwich in the cafe afterwards.