Monday 6th February (The Temperature has Risen)


Mr. Kite looked out of his bedroom window into a grey and white cloudy sky. Outside the trees and shrubs moved gently like sports people warming up before the game. These plants were warming up and full of energy awaiting the warm signal from the sun that it is time to burst into life.

Searching around Mr. Kite could not see any birds and hear any birds. Later in the dayMr. Kite walked into the town crossing the river where a flock of goosander were on the river. It is interesting to Mr. Kite to see goosander because they have only become a common sight on the river in the last ten years.

These large impressive sawbills dive to catch fish with their thin red hooked beaks. The male has a glossy green head and the female a chestnut head with a shaggy main. The birds swam powerfully in the flowing river. One pair decided to have a change of scenery and took to the air making a more impressive sight. The whites on the inner wing of the male stood out making a strong white line. The trailing white edge of the female was less visible but their long elegant spindly body shapes cut through the sky with their long necks outstretched.

Mr. Kite believes it is not the number of birds spotted but the quality of the sight or behaviour. Mergus merganser is a special sight and one swallow might not make a summer but one pair of common merganser does make a day.

Mr. Kite went home for a tipple of Wychywood Hobgblin. Cheers to those 'duck divers'.