Good to see old friends

I saw a couple of Lapwing outside Wilburton last Tuesday and numbers crept up over the week until there was a flock of maybe seventy of them on Friday.  Today there was a mixed flock of seventy Lapwing, fifty Golden Plover and half a field-full of Fieldfare. I parked in a farm track and stood by the side of the road for a few minutes taking them in.  The sun was low and picked up the tortoise-shell plumage of the Golden Plover beautifully.  Thirty or forty rooks came in across the plowed soil to settle in an adjacent field.   After a long and fairly joyless day at work, it's a reviving sight.   Headlights were starting to come on and the air smelt of cold earth. I got back in the car a happier man that I got out.