It could be madness or it could be commitment, but it was certainly very hot sitting in the mobile hide. I was trying to identify a jittery flock of 50 to 70 birds in this hawthorn above the pond. For the past fortnight they have been swirling up, flying in circles, going down to the pond en masse and abruptly exploding out again and always returning to this Hawthorn.

They were silhouetted, constantly moving and their markings seemed very bland so standing at a distance with binoculars wasn’t helping. So this what I was doing in this mobile sauna.

And it worked – here they are:

And what are they? Well, I think they are Linnets. Reasonably certain, although I will check when I next see someone who actually knows what they are talking about.

What I also noticed while I was in there was what a heavy crop on the Hawthorns there is this year. They are dripping:

Lovely! Hardly any sloes though, but no need to make sloe gin this year – haven’t started drinking what we made last year yet.