This is exciting for me for two reasons - Heathrow might shut and when that happens the mead and the riverbank seem so peaceful. Better yet, if it keeps getting colder and the edges of the river start to freeze, I can expect to see something a little controversial from my window.
There is a mink in the district. I've known this for a couple of years but last week I found out it is a lot closer than I realised. I found this because it decided to saunter past me, less than four feet away, sleek and fat and looking like an otter that has been drinking milk. It would have been rude not to follow it as far as I could, so I know roughly where it nests but not exactly. Most likely its in the magic garden or the big patch of brambles.
When the river gets too fast or the pike are too aggressive, the fish swim into a little pond I can see clearly from my window. All summer there is a heron perched there, cormorants and grebes swim underwater and the kingfishers fly down from their burrows half a mile upstream. When everything freezes though, the mink comes in. You can see the trails it leaves as it breaks through the ice. One time I saw it after hunting, leaping out of the water then crashing down through the ice again, all the while holding a fat fish in its jaws.
Not being a native species and being so ruthless the mink is considered unwelcome but when you actually see one up close or at work it is beautiful and exhilarating. I think its good to remember sometimes that the natural world is about brutal efficiency, not beauty.
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