Black Grouse?

A possible Black Grouse sighting has been reported to me but:

1. I've a bad and seriously bad and very, very bad case of the lurgy - woe, woe woe is me
2. and it's totally ****ing it down in buckets with a nasty, cold south-westerly to boot

So I'm staying behind the nice warmth containing, newly double-glazed windows drinking lemon flavoured paracetamol and seeing the very few birds that dare to risk the elements around the 2-barred Xbill bait (no harm in upping the stakes).

The one excitement in my day - apart from discovering an online version of "Asteroids" was to watch the mad tom cat attempt to ambush a tree rat. Tree rat comes off peanuts (I've no energy to go out there and hurl things at it today); tree rat sits on ground in usual cute sit up on haunches style munching peanut; tree rat starts to hoppity loop across the lawn; huge ginger tom cat emerges from nearby hiding place (braving wind, rain and generally inclement conditions) and misses it by a tails breadth. In the past when he's caught these he's eaten the lot, claws, tail, skull, everything. These are not my favourite beast, falling only fractionally lower than Rattus norvegicus in my list of introduced vermin that should be erradicated. In particular because there is a relatively recent sighting of Sciurus vulgaris not so many klicks away from here.