The peregrine is back

Yes that's right. It has moved to a new copse and now hunts closer to the golf course. The kestrel has moved further up the hill and can now regularly be seen hovering over the motorway verges as well as coming back into the conservation area.Today (Mrs Claus' birthday) we went to the new RSPB reserve at Rainham Marshes. A bright sunny day with a clear blue sky and a biting wind we had a very enjoyable morning in this new conservatin area. Lots of lapwing (2,000+ the warden said) and lots of ducks including Shelduck, possible Scaup and maybe a Shoveler but the glasses were not powerful enough (or were they just too far away) to claim positive identification. Another Little Egret fishing on the banks but no heron even though we hunted high and low. There was a surpising lack of wading birds, I would have thought the territory ideal for Curlew etc.When we went down onto the banks of the Thames later there were none to be identified there either even though the mud flats were exposed at low tide.Lunch at the Dog and Partridge - to be recommended but steer clear of the pickled onion! - and then to Tilbury Fort and a walk along the river path looking over to Gravesend.A very pleasant day as long as you don't think what the stock market is doing and whether we will end up paying the pension company rather then them paying us post 65. I have just rewritten our staff policy on mandatory retirement. The new law makes quite interesting reading.We have been looking back over the diaries to think of some questions for a fun quiz when we have our open house. No I am not telling you when, or where, or why - those who get an invitatio will know and those who don't (deliberately or failure of post) will have to wait to read about it later. We thought some of the questions might be linked to specific years and our holiday destinations. It came as a shock to count up that we have been to 21 countries (including the Principalities) since we got married and the boys have clocked up 4 more that we haven't been to - no expensive cultural trips in our day, a trip to a chalk quarry near Guildford for a geology field trip was about as good as it got. I seem to remember we went to St Albans once, got soaked to the skin and spent the rest of the day dripping inside the coach until it was time to go home. So you might want to ask a few leading questions about holidays next time we meet.I am sure there is more news but this is probably enough to be going on with