Making the most of mild adversity- I’m grounded with a dinged back, but discover my walking stick doubles nice as a brush rest.

Little rascals still busy this week- here one trying to swipe a mouse off the Kestrel, which foiled it by flipping onto the roof slope and holding the mouse out of sight.

Rainy day paint project- here's three bandits doing a backlit autumnal thing earlier in the week.

Today the Hobby kits have been learning about crows- no protection on hand from the adults as the female is long departed and the male doesn't do child minding except for feeding... happy ending as the grabbed bird got rescued in fine style by its siblings.

GBBG looking pleasingly like a Lammergeier whilst chugging a flattie yesterday afternoon.

Some weather at last! Curlew Sand being biffed by the wind on the roost today before nipping round the corner to get in the leeside of things.

First few juv Knot coming through here- must be bloody irritating to make it 4,000Km from Ellesmere Island and then have a Manila clam (I guess) clamp onto your hind toe when you land.

Plovers scuttling about on the baked crust of the salting this evening- here's lumpen juv Ringed Plover versus elfin juv Little Ringed Plover

Air defence systems still active this week.

Just to confirm that the young GBBG is now the size of small donkey.

Been doing a bit of long overdue taxonomy catch-up. I've got my head around divers no longer being at the front of the bird book, but cuckoos between bustards and sandgrouse is going to take a bit of getting used to.

Some weather at last! Not enough rain to lay the dust, but four inbound Knot plopped in and hauled out behind the Co-op.

There's consequences to having GBBG on the river- but hats off to this Shelduck who has successfully defended seven chicks for a week without loss despite daily check ups from the beast.

A bit of late season chickery down on the roost- Redshanks hatched in last week, so after the first godwits are back. The gatepost has been there since at least 1900 so has hosted more than 125 years of yelping Redshanks.

Shame you can't paint sounds- had a Peregrine follow me across a field and who00osh straight over my shoulder trying to take a Skylark.

Tempting to think that all gulls are rampant everywhere, but GBBG is still staying classy- as far as i can tell there's none pairs in Essex, just a couple in Suffolk inc. this one which escorted me off the premises whilst I was trying to count the early season Curlew.

Its that tricky week when there don't seem to be any waders going north or south, so attention wanders to other things. Here's a grebeling at Ardleigh with a heart-shaped red spot on its forehead.

I thought y’all would be excited to get an update. Fledgie 1 lasted <24 hours and was nobbled by a Tawny Owl before it could even get itself into the Buzzard zone. Fledgie 2 is a lot nimbler so fleeting photos, but it does have a white eyebrow like a Siberian Thrush.

A bit quiet round here on the birding front but the Jackdaws have just fledged a white un out of the back of my shed

Always liberating to chuck a not-working-out paint off the easel and start something else. Meant to be Pied Wags skidding round some evening backlit gulls on ice in Feb, but the ice doesn't look like ice and the gulls look more oiled than backlit so👎 and on we go...#birdart