Autumn at Hatfield, Rye Meads and London...

Saturday found me cruising up the M25 on it's birthday... yes.. the famed (or infamous) M25 was 25 years old on 29 October 2011... now itsn't that exciting!!

Good journey which ended at Hatfield Forest. I was hoping for birds - which were very scarce - but did have a wonderful walk in the sunshine and some beautiful Autumn colour (and a rather tasty Roast Beef and Horseradish Bap for lunch too...)

From their onto RSPB Rye Meads.. although lots of Teal, Gadwall, a Snipe, a Green Sandpiper and various other waterfowl, generally it was light of birds.

These horses were out grazing... I think they're Konicks.. (?)

So, after gaining a extra hour's sleep (the UK put the clocks back 1 hour on Saturday night) Pete and I set off for London. We were going for a concert but took advantage of an early start. The sun was shining as we set off for the tube... it wasn't to last!

A sojourn in Hyde Park which was busy with tourists.. ourselves included.

This horse's head is HUGE!!

And I really liked this... I've no idea what it's for (if anything) but somehow it reminded me of Jelly Babies.. it's very jolly and brightened up a dullish day.

And all around were the wonderful golds, browns and yellows of Autumn

Watching the birds on the Serpentine

and a rather wistful looking Black-headed Gull contemplating life.

and lots of statutory..

This final "attraction" left us confused.. I've no idea what it's representing. It looks as though it hasn't been fully built yet so perhaps all will become clear once it had.

and so onto Wigmore Hall..

We'd had some concerns about the first piece of music but those were entirely unfounded.. the "live" version was beautifully played and I didn, in the end, enjoy the music. The quartet playing today was the Pavel Haas Quartet and the piece I've just mentioned...was the Haas, String Quartet No. 1.

This was followed by some Beethoven... the energy expended to play these pieces was amazing and quite emotional in places. It was a shame that, on this occasion, the audience seemed rather noisy at times (a piece of a conversation was heard during the performance!!!) and, rather irritatingly a lady not far from me seemed to enjoy beating out some of the "rhythm" with her hands. Hey ho!

But nonetheless a very enjoyable weekend...

A new local patch..

Having forsaken Surrey for West Sussex, my local (birding) patches have had to change. RSPB Pulborough Brooks looks like being one of them.

I went over this morning arriving quite early; very few cars in the car park and for the first 45 minutes I didn't see a soul.

Generally very quiet until this flock of Greylags took off.

Later on and further around, something in excess of 200 Canada Geese arrived on the reserve. There's something very magical about hundreds of birds filling sky with their incredibly loud flight calls!!

This is one of two Bulls.... he was bellowing quite a lot after he'd had this drink and I was rather glad of the fence between us!

Back to the visitor centre where Goldfinches were nibbling on teasels..

A good spot for small birds and several House Sparrows there.

Off home for a quick sandwhich before an afternoon walk on the beach as the tide was going out. The gulls I see now are more likely to be on the beach, as this one is, rather than around a pond.

A pleasant outing...