Wednesday April 22

A sunny morning with a light north-easterly wind.

I began by locating a pair of Red-legged Partridges at Netherstead, the plan being to sketch them.

The rest of the morning was devoted to the very noble process of surveying the breeding birds along the road from Netherstead to Church Farm, and thereafter walking down to the flash field to see what was there.

The answer was not a lot. The pair of Redshanks are getting frisky, and a pair of Little Ringed Plovers was just visible on the back flash with 11 Teal and several Mallards, Geese etc.

Walking around I noted at least two, possibly three, singing Lesser Whitethroats, three singing Whitethroats, and a singing Willow Warbler.

I also bumped into Matt Willmott who also hadn't seen much.

Finally, on the road I noticed a Wood Mouse. It seemed strangely unwilling to run off, and my rather unpleasant photograph illustrates why.

One blind mouse

For what its worth I assisted it off the road and into the long grass. I'm not sure what had caused its affliction.