Christine's walking & birds blog

After a miserable week in with a cold I longed for fresh air and exercise and so paid a short visit to the Beeches. The firecrest was still there in the same area, although it took me some time to locate it.

Had I felt well I would have tramped across the woods hoping for a lesser-spot to complete a fine double; however, a pair of calling ravens seen briefly through the tree-tops was ample compensation.

The two elements of this particular double could hardly be more different: one a tiny sunburst seeming hardly bigger than a bumblebee, a flash of white-and-gold in the pagan gloom of the hollies; the other an ancient, pagan darkness of its own, hulking and unassailable as it shrugs off bothersome crows.