As you will know, I’m always seen carrying a camera, or camera phone these days, and record parish scenes and events when I can. This month a walk along the canal brought delightful views of animals in the fields on either side. Incredible that the temperature is still so high, and grass still growing. We’ve had several beautiful red sky sunrises, and after comparably warm days, had amazing mists and sunsets, as can be seen below.

There have been lots of reports of the kingfisher (s) being seen along the canal, and cormorants have appeared at The Pit and along the canal. Buzzards too have shown their presence, and I regularly see one emerging from the trees bordering the High School fields in Birch Heath. I mentioned last month that barn owls have been seen in several places, and several friends, have, like me, heard song thrushes in the village. Robins have been singing territorial songs for several months, and I’ve also picked up the sweet song of the dunnock and rather flutier call of the wren. Two black caps have been spotted in the village, the males with a black cap on its head and the female a more chocolate brown colour. We’ve now had a tiny coal tit coming to the garden, almost every day in fact, and is sometimes joined by two long tailed tits. A family of 25+ house sparrows still use our garden as a base. We also have a small group of starlings visit each day, and I’ve noticed the beginning of a murmuration at Boughton, not far from Boughton Hall where I suspect they are roosting.

Several wildlife sightings I would expect to see in November are not happening this year, at least to date. Our pink footed geese seem to have gone awol, as have the 100 or so redwing that appeared in late October. There are still thousands of berries in the hedgerows, although the yew berries in the churchyard have been stripped over the past three weeks.