Where's the sun gone

. Got up this morning and headed for Barking bay lovely dull grey skies with rain forecast for about midday. As i was walking onto the patch i saw a Pied wagtail sitting on the fence about 20 yards away. This is only the second one i have seen here this year(it might even be the same one twice). I remember when i used to come here as a kid you would probably see 20 or 30 wagtails a day more in the summer. The foreshore produced plenty of Teal, Shelducks, assorted Gulls (as far as i could see black headed,herring and a gbb the visibility wasn't good enough for me to spot anything better if it was there. 4 Curlew, 2 Oystercatchers and 2 Great crested grebes on the water.

The scrub and ditches didn't fare much better either, Just the usual and a Golden oriole actually it was probably a green woodpecker. As i was watching a Chaffinch in the trees at the back of the middle ditch through my bins, a yellow bird flew through. As i often see Green woodpeckers there and am never likely to see a Golden oriole i think i am safe in saying it was a woody even though it looked very yellow.  I hung around for a while and walked along the path where it was headed but it never reappeared.

By now it was raining so i headed back to the car and went to Rainham as they had an optics day on.

I never intended going for a walk round as i was soaked already, but when i got there the sun had come out so i had a little stroll down to the woodland area, with nothing much there either i called it a day. I did make 2 observations whilst there though;  first i made the mistake of looking through a pair of swarovski bins thought they were supurb looks like i might have to find £1600 (good  job i didn't look through the scope).

Secondly i don't know if it was the change in weather but normally as you walk round people say either hello good morning/afternoon etc today everyone i passed just blanked me (i did check my flies wern't undone).

Can't wait till the spring migrants arrive.