Half a clout.
Raw January day here in Southend today (11°C here at the moment). I cycled to Gunners Park, Shoeburyness, to meet my good pal Penelope. I took a flask of freshly-made coffee, or as freshly-made as it could have been given that it was subject to a 30 minute bike ride.
Summer visitors abounded. We could hear the cuckoo pretty much throughout our hour-long chill. I caught a brief glimpse of him from the south side of the lake. There were swifts, swallows, house martins and a whitethroat. There were also plenty of non-migratory water birds: at leat 6 swans, quite a few mallards, a shelduck flew over, there was a cormorant, and quite a few gulls.
Before I got there, Pen had photographed a kestrel that had put in an appearance.