Winter closes in

Lade - wet and windy - Yesterday it was fog, today a warm, rain-bearing wind from the south in Mordor-like light. This really is a grim time of year, made worse by the run in to the dreaded Christmas feeding frenzy of rampant consumerism and excesses which the besieged planet can more than do without. "Black Friday or Buy now and have the lot before Christmas," the adverts scream - everywhere you look, read or listen in the media its the same message, have more, load up that credit card and get into debt with crap you don't really need, its inescapable. 
  Day and night vast container ships akin to floating blocks of flats pass Dungeness heading for the ports of Felixstowe and Rotterdam to unload cargoes of those `essentials` for the festive season; plastic Santa's, fairy lights and the like at goodness knows what cost to the environment in China and south-east Asia. I can see why some folk bugger off abroad for a month or two to get away from it all, its just so depressing. Still, there`s always the Brexit vote to look forward to next month...
  Anyhow, that's enough ranting for now. Meanwhile on the local patch there is a sense of the natural world settling into winter mode with the arrival of Goldeneyes on the lakes and waders on the bay. Dartford Warblers also appear to have established winter territories in the gorse scrub while Bittern, Bearded Tit and Water Rail are also present in the reedbeds and willow swamp.
  An hour at the fishing boats this morning in the company of MC provided a steady flow of typical winter seabirds offshore in the form of Gannet, Kittiwake, Great Crested Grebe, Red-throated Diver, Guillemot and at least one Razorbill. Before I arrived Eider and Velvet Scoter were also noted.