Bretherton Eyes

A magical name - and we were all eyes as we assembled at a very frosty 9am watching thousands of woodpigeon depart the woods fanning the icy breeze. (If you click on the photo, you'll see we all had a dozen layers on!)Fieldfare, redwing, song thrush, nuthatch and many more fluttered around the wooded lane. When we reached the Mean High Water embankment, we looked down on flat, open fields (many of them deeply ploughed) and threw up flocks of singing larks, meadow pipits, a few lapwings, heron, kestrels hunting and more. A kingfisher perched in the grass by a water channel.

Into Back Lane, we were greeted by Dartmoor(?) ponies. Gary pointed out a brown lying low with ears down well camouflaged in a field. A small flock of yellow hammers flitted over and obligingly perched in a nearby hedge along with some goldfinch.

Back in Eyes Lane, some beaters returned and a dozen red-legged partridge ran into the safety of an off-limits field just as the shots began...

Thanks to Nigel Faiclough for this morning's photos. See link for more of his landscape and wildlife photography.

Below is a photo of Bank Hall which is also in this area. It opens during February for 'Snowdrop Sundays'. Find out more at http://www.bankhall.org.uk/html/intro.htmlI wrote this last year. Just let it resurface today. It still needs some editing but here it is so far:

SNOWDROP SUNDAYS
Bank Hall 2008

Her carriageway has known no carriage
for years. She twisted an ankle,
tripped over time, sat ageing and aching,
slates slipping from her head.
Emptiness has flaked her,
wrung its hands across the lawn,
shook out bouquets of snowdrops,
unveiling her unrequited love.