The days are shortening

In high summer I can set out after the evening meal and still get home in daylight...now it is increasingly a struggle to get out after lunch and do the same but I must keep on trying.
It all looked very bleak but the thermometer registered 12.3° and it was dry. On the down side there was a stiff breeze coming down off the moor that was in my face on the outward trek and this left my eyes watering.
Most of the birds that normally litter my route had departed or gone to ground...not seen a pied wagtail in weeks and wood pigeons might as well belong to a different planet...
There are collared doves and starlings and jackdaws still in abundance and feral pigeons and crows too but the rest are very sparse,
At the pond the usual geese were still there including the now resident Canada Goose.There were fewer Mallard than usual and of these three were in an unusual group of two females with one Drake. The Moorhens were still around and I managed to spot three at the same time... ..that doesn't mean to say that the others were not around somewhere. Black headed gulls, still in eclipse, completed the pond milieu and these included some first winter birds complete with black edgings to their tails.
Up onto the edge of the moor, and the afternoon light lit up the bronze of the bracken dying back. The Saddlebacks due to deliver on Bongfire night had two piglets visible between them....not sure how many others there are or were but I rather think they were expectd to produce rather more than that.
The Copse looked black in silhouette though closer too the Scots pIne were still dark grren, an oak still carried its now autumnal tinted leaves and some of the beeches still retained theirs. It looked as if it had been thinned out but I was uncertain whether this was a real thinning or it just seemed that way with the leaf loss from most of the stand.
A family sized group of finch like birds lifted to over head wires on Wessendon Head Road probably golf finches but the light was too poor to pick up colouring, and at the horse field a foursome of female pheasants slid guiltily away from the horses shelter as if they had been stealing his food.
Some odd pairs of magpies and jackdaws and a flight of starlings coming together for the evening roost and that was about it birdwise.
It's good if the birds are able to get food out on the hills away from the villages...but just a little disappointing for those watching from the village periphery. It was however a good day for a walk and it was good too seeand meet with others out enjoying the opportunites of a dry and not too chilly afternoon.