Nutbourne and Prinstead makes the destination again today as we need more supplies for Christmas from
the Southbourne Farm shop. Not much has changed since yesterday it’s still cloudy, rainy and rather dull. It’s such a shame, last night there was a conjunction between Jupiter and Saturn. If we’d been able to see it, it would have appeared as an exceptionally bright star in the south west part of the sky; these only happen infrequently, the next one will be in 2080. A conjunction like this is considered to be the most likely cause of the bright star over Bethlehem that the wise men followed. It’s such a shame that we’ve missed this event as we certainly won’t be around for the next one.
The incessant rain has left it’s mark, the meadow at Nutbourne Farm is waterlogged with splashes in the low lying parts. Several teal are enjoying the fresh water, splashing about and whistling in brief thrips. It’s good weather for ducks, why would they stay out on the harbour if there’s so much water about inland like this?
The huge volume of water that has accumulated in the reed bed is gushing out of the Nutbourne outfall sluice in a torrent of foam streaked water that looks more like a white water canoe course than the sedate stream that’s normally found here. Despite this it’s not attracting many duck, probably they’ve gone inland as there aren’t many about here.
There are a few waders about, spread across the mud that extends far away from the sea wall. Quite a
variety from Curlew to flights (or rather flings) of Dunlin that perform their aerobatics for us like a mumeration of Starlings. In between are the Redshanks and a variety of smaller birds strutting about the waters edge.
There’s not a lot more to see; inland all life seems to have hunkered down until the weather improves. The hedges are now quite bare but have recovered from the trimming they’ve suffered over the past couple of months. Here and there old nests have become visible, normally well hidden away from view; not as many as might have been expected though.