a day in November that was not grey

It's taken a while to finish this one, but here is an absolutely zinging cold and bright day at Walberswick (unique winter residence of Spotted Redshank and Twite) last November.

Spotted Redshank and Twite at Dunwich shore pools

The canvas is about 20" high, so getting in some recognisable Twite that look OK but don't stick out from the background like little rub-on transfers was a challenge:  here's where I ended up, with each bird rendered across no more than about 15 stitches of canvas.

...and some beasts of winter

winter has arrived

Never mind close-ups from a hide:  here's a Water Rail scuttling for cover in a frozen marsh

Water Rail in winter

what every partridge knows..

is that when a Peregrine flies over, you have to crouch and not budge an inch for at least 10 minutes, even if you are taking a short-cut across a muddy estuary.

But not every partridge knows that there is an exception to the do-not-budge rule, if the tide is coming in..

This story had a happy ending, with the bedraggled partridge coming to its senses and floundering to shore after 25 minutes.