I'll draw a veil over this mornings start at Willows. While the sound of the cuckoo and woodpecker was a delight, the cold start and bitter northerly wind was not, and had me running to the car for my gloves. The morning was thus predictably quiet on the fish front, so I cut my losses and crossed the causeway to the adjacent Alders lake. This was a good move, even if the wind did swing south to resume blowing in my face.

I started close in near some sunken willow roots. Just one bite on sweetcorn resulted in a surprise 6lb bream - I always thought they chose open waters. With no more bites I switched to method feeder. I had so many knocks, line bites and apparently healthy takes that did not connect, This led to a busy afternoon and I really  should have caught more than the 5lb 8 tench and equally 5lb 8 bream I was delighted to see.

One other highlight. A crow flew down and picked up the apple core I'd thrown into the undergrowth an hour earlier. It carried it to a felled tree stump, held it down with one foot and used it as a table to peck the remaining flesh out of it. A good day