Encouragements & Discouragements

After getting up soon after 4am this morning to get some work done I reckoned I'd earned myself a bit of sunshine. There were various articles I needed to read so I surmised that I might as well read them in the fresh air! The discouragement was the failure of any Water Voles to appear over 4 hours silently waiting at Afton Marsh. Hopefully they will become a bit less nocturnal and a lot more visible over the next few months. There are still plenty of signs, including this well-used latrine on an alder tree root...

And this is the encouragement - a Spotted Redshank that was present at Mill Copse Pool. I'd heard that it was around so it was good to catch up with it....