Well it seems to be here. A few morning frost have turned the air sharp, brought the leaves down and flattened the grass. There are more leaves on the ground than in the trees and the birds are all in feeding flocks with the winter mind set of searching for food. This time of year, once the fields next to the access track have been ploughed is always the time to listened out for a mournful peep. This means that the golden plowers are passing through. Any bird that is speckled with gold, even in its duller winter plumage's you would think would be easy to see. But when the regular flocks stop off on the freshly turned earthy fields of the Carse they just disappear. It is only their sad 'peeip' calls that give them away and then it can take 10 mins. of searching with binoculars to find them. But it is worth it as they are delightful birds. Seeming to have a quiet and calm character they only become really visible when they lift off in flocks and circle to find fresh ploughed fields to feed on. So if you are down at the car park take a little time to scan the fields and catch up with this invisible visitor from the mountains.
In between the frost has been quite a few dumpings of rain, such that it has been a job to get water proofs dry each night before getting soaking the next day. So I was a bit surprised to find that we only had a very average 113.00mm of rain for October. The middle of the month was dry so most of this must have fallen in the last week or so. The annual total is still looking like it is going to be a dry year and you can tell this on the moss as the water levels in the pools drop quickly if there is a break in the rain so this means that the water table within the peat is not at saturation point. However, there is plenty of time yet this winter and it would only take a really wet month of 200+mm of rain to put the wobble back in the bog.
