Until the first wisps of snow...

The geo-environmental engineer and I are incredibly lucky. We get to do all kinds of fun stuff together, we both enjoy our work and we both have our own stuff going on. She, for example, likes to hit the town with the girls of a night every now and then and I like to hit the river first thing every now and then and so we tend to take it in turns regarding the domestic arrangements. Of late I've typically been hitting the river for first light on weekends. This works well. She can have a bit of a lie in, and I can have a bit of a wake up. This weekend however we're off to Scotland and next weekend she's off to Paris - care of an old friend from her air-hostess days and so, as I'd be more than likely be up to my elbows in chocolate and cornflakes with a 7 year old, the river it seemed would have to wait.

Not so. My wonderful other half had a quick think and came up with a solution. Why didn't she do the school drop-off this morning, whilst I grabbed an hour at the river before work and see if that was do-able? Excellent idea. So by 6:40 I was parked at the black and yellow gate. Strange though today. There was another car parked there...da da da!!! Never had that happen before. Hmmmmm.  Turned out to be a wildfowler with a black lab. Nice chap. Chatted for quite a while by the river until the first wisps of snow appeared and I headed off to get on with my paperwork. Still, managed an hour no problems... and with the mornings getting earlier this could easily become a regular mid-week thing. Very cool! SO, below is a rough tally of what was on the (very quiet) river first thing today... 3 Cormorant, 1000+ Lapwing, 120 Curlew, 3 Redshank, 1 Common Sandpiper (calling from the Manchester Ship Canal behind me)...

...1 Woodcock (flying over the scrub along the path to the river), 29 Shelduck, 12 Mallard, 2 Gadwall, 30 Wigeon, 8 Greylag Goose, 3 Canada Goose, 1 Common Buzzard, 52 Carrion Crow.