Musings on what to record and a sitting fox

Cycled to work again today. This is a kind of phased return to cycling after an enforced gap of over 4 months after breaking my wrist. Given that a) it is hard work getting back into it and b) it is often icy at the moment and I don't want another fall, I am easing in gradually and not cycling in the dark any more.

So this morning was pretty cold but bright, with some icy patches (but they were small, luckily and easily avoidable) and as I cycled up Tongwell Lane I noticed a kestrel perched and mused about whether to write a blog entry about it. It strikes me that if 'diary' type postings like this are to be helpful in tracking changes over time, we should also record more common events. We tend not to notice that, say, we haven't seen sparrows, for quite a while. For example, I'm pretty sure I have heard fewer and fewer cuckoos each year recently - but as I haven't documented it I can't be sure. But there is some balance to be struck. Can't be recording every pigeon and magpie (though the world does seem to be more full of both, now I think of it). And a subjective element. As I really like kestrels (and other birds of prey) and enjoy watching them, I will tend to make a note when I see them.

Cycling this route takes me past Willen Lake, and this morning as I turned on to the redway along the lake I saw what at first might have been a dog sitting in the middle of the redway just about 15 yards ahead of me. Quite quickly I realised it was a fox (this was about 8.25, I guess), but it was very laid back; assessed that I probably posed no immediate danger (yes I know that's a bit anthromorphic) and slowly walked into the hedge. But what really fascinated me was that 10 yards the other side of the hedge a woman was walking a dog off the lead which imagine had not got any notion that a fox was there or would have given chase, and just before I saw the fox, I passed a dalmation nosing around - again seemingly oblivious. I have had foxes do this 'casual' walk away from me before, though I have to say if you have a dog with you they are usually not quite so casual. But it was a good thing to see on a cold morning when my feet were freezing.

The lake also gives the opportunity to see lapwings. Not that these are unusual either, but, they are a declining species, and one I particularly love as I associate them with the fields not far from home in North Wales where they were very common at that time (quite a long time ago, I guess). The species I most associate with the rather marshy land close to the sea near where I lived is the curlew, and sadly that is also in decline, and I rarely see them in MK. (In fact I don't think I ever have). But I'm pleased to see I saw and heard loads when I was back in Caernarfon the October before last, along the Foryd Bay (now a nature reserve) and also whimbrel.