Are you wearing mascara?

You know you’ve been too long on the mosses when you begin to suspect the Lapwings of using make-up, but it’s always fun to watch ’em tumbling and wailing over the fields.
A few youngsters tottering over the black soil on the Withins and on Plex too, lusted after by Grey Herons and Carrion Crows.
While the 1995 White Crowned Sparrow at Seaforth (fond memories) may not have been as bright as the stunner down at Woolston Eyes today, it did mean I didn’t have to scoot over the Thelwall Viaduct (I hope everyone who went caught up with the Yankee humbug-head, thanks to all who contacted me about it), so I could spend a few hours out on the mosses.
Wheatears and White Wags out on the ploughed fields, with a steady, but light, stream of Swallows banging north, all low to the ground – hardly surprising in the cold wind.
Still only three or four singing Corn Buntings though, and no sign of the feeding flock from a week ago.
Haskayne Cutting had Willow Warbler, Whitethroat, Blackcap and Chiffchaff, and the impressive Orange-Tip population was finally starting to stir.
Otherwise it’s all going a bit yellow out there – what with Cowslips flowering and Reed Buntings darting about the rapeseed oil.