Today has been a blustery day…  the trees have almost been stripped bare; with leaf drifts littering drive ways, sides of buildings, with no place to settle in the forest.  The sights of leaf drifts have been stunning!   All this made me think about birds today – ‘hiding from the storm’  in our forests, woodlands or out on the farmlands in Nottinghamshire and Lincolnshire.   Where do they hide to avoid being blown away in gale force winds?   Berries on the bird tables have been left untouched!   As the weather warnings were given out over the last few hours;  I gave thought to the flocks of chattering fieldfares winging their way from Scandinavia to the UK for the winter.  Fieldfares are often seen on our farmlands; in amongst the hedgerows around the UK.   ‘Today our landscape has seemed stark, a lifeless place as the storm crosses the UK with not a bird in sight!’

A sketch made a few years ago of a fieldfare; Watercolour, Pen & inks