This afternoon with the family I had a nice 5 mile walk around Durham starting from Shincliffe village . The river was gunmetal grey with all the snow around and joy of joys the Goosanders were back. Three of them like last time so I'm assuming it is the same three. That was good but 500m downstream it got even better because I noticed a very small diving bird and I knew it wasn't one of the usual suspects so as I was loudly wondering a lovely lady from Ilkley said it was a Little Grebe and having just verified that : she was right . A Little Grebe in its winter plumage and we saw 5 of them at the Shincliffe end of the river one on its own at Framwellgate Bridge. Total bliss.

In town we went to see the Victorian Market up at the Cathedral and it was a very good show with lots of food and craft stalls. One of the stalls had several birds of prey from a local BOP centre and we noticed a few empty stalls which irritated me a bit because the lady from Durham Markets said yesterday that they had no stalls available for us to have a Bahai stall but I suppose some of the stallholders may not have turned up . Still she did say to book July 2011 for the next Victorian Xmas Market and we will take her up on that. Fo and I love doing Bahai stalls and it is great when people ask about our religion and interesting when they just want to disagree with it! We have met allsorts doing Bahai stalls!

On the way back to Shincliffe we saw a Goosander again and it just flew offf as soon as it saw us . They are a very wild bird with only 2600 breeding pairs in the UK although a lot more over winter which is why we mainly see them in winter. In the past they were heavily killed of by fishermen and landowners because it was (incorrectly) believed they dented fish stocks . Gosh , everything has it's story doesn't it! A gorgeous afternoon out ending up with Fo and I crashing out in bed and listing to Tenebrae her slaying monsters on the DS , me doing this and surfing the net . Cosy!