Walk from Bait’s Bite Lock to Clayhithe yesterday – sunny and chilly. Dunnock, wren, robin and blackbirds flitting in and out of the hedges; mallard, dabchick, moorhen and mute swan idling on the water. Five cormorants sat, gloomy sentinels, on a dead tree near Clayhithe. Are they here year-round and do they attempt to breed? The Field Guide says they may nest ‘on inland lake islands and trees’.