In contrast to yesterday today is grey, no blue sky,  no sunshine, just stillness and mistiness. It’s low tide so there’s the prospect of seeing some wildfowl even though it’s a neap tide. 

The field just passed the church has been thoroughly ploughed, so much for min till! Presumably this is to control the weeds which were very evident, there are still many tufts of grass in places that have not been buried. Amongst all this desolation there must be a few worms or seeds on the surface as there were a great number of Pied Wagtails about. All over the field little grey shapes were bobbing about with black caps and bibs, more than I’ve ever seen in one place before. Why most seemed to be female

with their grey backs was not clear. Many even looked like white wagtails due to the light grey backs; they are meant to breed in Europe but can pass through as passage migrants.

Out on the marsh were hoards of gulls that seemed to have crowded out most of the waders and wildfowl; the banks near the channel were covered by them. A few wigeon and the occasional redshank remained here and there but it seemed that most had moved on to more comfortable places in the harbour.

Unlike Itchenor there were just a few spots of colour about the meadows and hedgerows where one or two flowers had hung on despite the change in season. Perhaps it was the moderate temperature, well above the average at about 15 degrees due to a southerly airflow. Clumps of ragwort, honesty and smatterings of yarrow showed that winter had not taken hold yet.