Too much water

Whilst not comparing with what's going on in some parts of the country, all this rain has caused some worrying damp patches to appear in my house; it has also, unsurprisingly, caused water levels at Collingham Pits and Mons Pool to rise; as a result, both sites held considerably fewer wildfowl than last week. All the Teal, and most of the other ducks that had been using the Main Pit at Collingham have departed, no doubt making use of temporarily flooded areas elsewhere. The Silt Lagoon was a little better, with 4 Redshank and a Little Egret the best on offer, but Mons Pool didn't have anything of note. Giving up with birds I went and looked at the Trent, which was very high - it looks like it may only be a matter of time before it over tops its banks.

The Trent full to bursting at Collingham

Yesterday, before an early meet time for hockey, I enjoyed a female Blackcap in the garden (hopefully this will hang around for the winter) and then spent far to short a time with the gulls at Cotham Landfill; there were none loafing in the fields opposite, so I viewed into the landfill itself from the Sustrans route. There seemed to be gulls flying off in all directions, but there were still hundreds and hundreds on the landfill itself. With Glaucous, Caspian and Yellow-legged Gulls in the Hoveringham gull roost the night before, I was hopeful of something good, but it didn't materialise in the time available. With no hockey next week, I'm planning to give the gulls a good grilling next saturday...