It’s a bright, sharp morning today with a hard frost so it took a while to remove the ice from our car an

head over to Bosham to see what’s happening at Chidham Creek. Fortunately the mud is frozen so easy to walk on. The grass is covered in frost which glints in the light of the low, golden sun. The skyline is in silhouette underneath rich clouds which are reflected in the water, it’s enough to make you want to reach for the water colours.

At first there seems to be little in the creek itself but a patience is rewarded with half a dozen Lapwings coming out of nowhere followed by ten Shelduck that move gradually, revealing themselves. Naturally there are a few redshank and Wigeon to provide a musical accompaniment.

Further on it’s the Wigeon that become the star performers of the day, there are about 50 in the bay just past the entrance of the creek. They’re all sitting just offshore together, calling and preening.

Further on adjacent to the houses in the village there are plenty more, sitting in groups of ten or more, their chestnut heads standing out in the bright sunshine. Other groups of wigeon appear flying around the harbour before circling one of the groups then dropping in to join them. It’s about two hours before high tide so I can only assume that they’ve been pushed off the mud

somewhere else in the harbour and want to roost for a while in company.

The bright sunshine seems to have stimulated the Tits who have suddenly become very vocal. In most hedgerows there are Great and blue Tits bouncing about in fine voice twittering away. Perhaps this is one of the first signs of spring and they’re defining their territories ready for warmer times.