Chilled Weekend

Not much to report this weekend. Tides were wrong for getting out to Sprite. Nicky needed to borrow my winch as an old hull had broken loose and was bumping into Meagles at high tide. She needed the winch to drag the hull up above high tide. So I dropped the winch off yesterday.

Today I did a bit of food shopping, serviced the car and did a bit of housework, then went off to the boat just as the Sun was getting towards the horizon. Always a quiet, still time of day down at Eastney, as the sightseer traffic tends to die down.

I spent over an hour just chilling down there, watching the birds working their way down the beach and the geese fattening themselves for the flight back up North. I don't think it'll be long now because they're starting to fly around in bigger flocks. Always a precursor to them legging it off Northwards. I'm sure the weather at the moment is confusing them, being freezing at night and mild during the day.

But it's relaxing listening to the calls of the birds when there's no other noise. The Geese and their quiet honks of contentment, the more distant calls of the Curlew working the centre of the pond, the chatter of the Starlings as they work the beach around the high tide mark. Only broken every so often by the loud shrill call of a Gull echoing off the surroundings.

A couple of guys with cameras were walking down the beach taking arty snaps of the birds in the low Sun. One mentioned someone had seen an otter swimming. Not sure it was an otter, Langstone harbour is a bit too busy with human traffic for them. I really hope it's not a Mink, the bird nesting sanctuaries on the islands in the harbour will be under threat if it is.