I was walking along one of the quieter roads in the locality on my daily walk today when I saw six magpies in the branches of a medium sized leafless Oak tree. I quickly raised my mobile phone to take a picture. Suddenly there was a movement of another creature right in front of me, I saw a brown four-legged creature walking slowly from behind a nearby tree. My first thought was what breed of dog is that? I realised it was a muntjac deer and promptly snapped a few photographs. The deer hopped over a low wall and raced off along the hedgerow into a nearby field. I never did get my photo of the magpies.

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Written by John Yeo – All rights reserved

  I began to walk along the clifftop path when, to my surprise and delight, a single medium-sized bird flew overhead. I was unsure what kind of bird it was until it suddenly started hovering over a patch of brambles.
   I quickly snapped a couple of photographs and a short video. Google Lens later identified it as either a peregrine falcon or a sparrowhawk. Sadly, I’m sure it was probably the latter, as I have seen a lot of sparrows or dunnocks flying around these brambles.
  I continued walking along the pathway and I noticed several gulls flying overhead and above the beach. I photographed a line of gulls perched on a line of posts, obviously part of a breakwater, showing above the waves.

I saw quite a few sparrows flying around in and out of the hebe shrubs on the promenade gardens. I was happy the predatory hawk I photographed earlier had disappeared, although sadly nature has ways and means of feeding the hungry.
Today, I walked for 2.57 miles in 55 minutes.
Google Fit awarded me 35 heart points.

   Some beautiful, strong gold sunshine was swiftly melting a slight early morning frost.
  A flock of about 30 feral pigeons was flying around the rooftops of the industrial estate across the busy main road.
  Several corvids were feeding on the golf course grass, many of them jackdaws mingled with a few rooks.
  A lady passed by, walking a lively Pekinese-type dog, and I also passed a young woman with a brown poodle-type dog around the outskirts of the golf course.
  A single gull flew down onto the boating lake as I reached the clifftop viewpoint.
I shot a short, dramatic video of the waves crashing into the seashore. The sound of the seawater dragging some small pebbles around on the beach was surreal. I also took a couple of still photographs of the white-topped waves rolling into the shore.
  A man walking a Golden Retriever walked along the clifftop path.
  I couldn’t resist taking a couple of photographs of some frost-covered tree mallow shrubs. In fact, the whole row of these shrubs alongside the clifftop pathway drooped and looked sorry for themselves.
  A lady walking a Jack Russell terrier wandered along the promenade with many other people, enjoying the cool, pleasant morning sunshine.
Several hedge sparrows were flying around the hebe shrubs growing on the promenade gardens.
  Two men with two retrievers were laughing and watching their dogs barking loudly at each other. I’m sure dogs often symbolise and take on many of their owners’ characteristics. A lady with a well-behaved retriever-type dog ordered her dog to sit and wait while the barking was happening.
  A robin was perched on a twig at the edge of a shrub; the sunlight was shining on him, lighting up his vivid red breast.
The people living in the bird-friendly house near the golf club entrance had just provided some food for the birds. About 10 gulls suddenly flew around, calling loudly to one another. A large flock of feral pigeons began circling around, and I noticed several jackdaws perched along the ridge of the rooftop.
There were several corvids in the treetops growing along both sides of the main road towards the leisure centre, where I met up with Margaret.
Today I walked for 2.25 miles in 46 minutes.
Google Fit awarded me 28 heart points.

   Although the sun was shining powerfully, there was quite a stiff breeze blowing when I left the house to commence my daily walk.

The rooks were loudly calling in the trees above the rookery as I walked along Foxy Lane. I began to walk around the outskirts of the recreation ground where a small group of about 10 rooks were feeding on the grass. As I approached, five of them flew over the hedgerow into the cemetery; the rest continued feeding slightly further away.
A few dunnocks were flying back and forth into the shrubs that made up the hedgerow. It felt quiet without my friendly Pit Bull Terrier, who was sadly missing today, but the smaller dogs in a house not far away soon began yapping loudly.
  I entered the cemetery and began to make my way along the pathways. The powerful rays of the sun lit up the branches of a tree growing over the rookery. I took a couple of photographs of some rooks perched in the branches of a leafless tree growing above the rookery. A couple of small sparrow-like birds and a male and female blackbird flew off as I approached the entrance.
I walked along Wey Road towards the leisure centre where I could see a small flock of feral pigeons sheltering from the wind on a factory rooftop in the industrial estate. I noticed a young lady walking with a Yorkshire Terrier by the cricket pavilion.
My total distance for today was 2.66 miles in 58 minutes. Google Fit awarded me 25 heart points.