This evening the weather could be summed up in two word: Grey drizzle.

However, it seems this is the ideal weather for pheasants (Phasianus colchicus). They were everywhere. We saw at least five individual males and a single couple on a 500m stretch of road. One was just next to the car. I could have reached out and touched it. Amazing! We were not the only ones that had noticed all the pheasants. A fox (Vulpes vulpes) came running across the road infront up.

At the beach two harbour porpoises (Phocoena phocoena) had beached, and were being eaten by the seagulls.The gulls seems to prefer the meat on the porpoises head and chest. There were gaping holes with the skull and ribs clearly visible. This is the third beached whale I have seen this year. I wonder if a disease is spreading amongst them, or they simply get caught behind a sandbank as the tide got lower or lower. The first I saw was full-grown (approx. 1.5 m), but the two today were youngs (about 60-70 cm). None of them had any tracking devices on. I have sent an e-mail to the National Environmental Research Institute to report it.

Finally, we saw a black Adder /European Viper ((Vipera berus) in the dunes. It was cold and not moving. It was the only animal today that I managed to get a photo of – the weather was that bad. Unfortunately it had a straw infront of its head, and I was too chicken to try and remove it. I have put the picture here, although the quality is less than good, simply because they are so rarely  spotted.

I have seen more pheasants this year than the rest of my life combined, but still have not been able to take a decent photo of them! Tough luck!