Friday 26th December

A miserable morning (weather-wise), but headed up to the reservoir to check the feeders after lunch. Weather still not great, but gradually cleared by the end, birds present - always great, and as usual something new to see.

The feeders were, as to be expected, fairly heaving, with the following maxima counted -

Greenfinch 7
Chaffinch 12+
Dunnock 4
Reed Bunting 3
Great Tit 2
Blue Tit 4

with singles of Robin, Blackbird, Water Rail and a couple of Long-tailed Tits.

Slightly further into the woods, a Great Spotted Woodpecker investigated the mossy trunks,  a Moorhen meandered through the undergrowth, and a flock of 8 Long-tailed Tits bounced between the trees either side of the hide; as mentioned a couple decided to briefly hang off and try their luck at the peanut feeders. Two tiny Goldcrest with them were also nice; a bird seen in flight across the hide appeared to be a Firecrest, but in-flight views not really good enough for a positive claim unfortunately (the head looked good, but hey). Will have to keep an eye out ...

We can still see you ... Long-tailed Tit

Further still and 15 Snipe and 22 Teal resting up on the marsh were good, with a Grey Heron stalking the shallows and a Buzzard in the field beyond completing the line-up from the Southern Hide.

Snipe and Teal

The Stuart Hutchings hide produced fairly distant views of most of the usual suspects, a little depleted perhaps;

16 Herring Gull
5 Black-headed Gull
50 Mallard
19 Tufted Duck
5 Pochard
7 Little Grebe
1 Slavonian Grebe  (still worth putting in bold?!)
1 Little Egret
2 Pied Wagtail

Main interest, aside the Little Egret in active mode, was seeing an immature Herring Gull still begging for food (not quite sure if it was totally successful as was attempting to get a pic). A late bird? Wonder when this behaviour finally ends? - until the adults finally persuade them they won't get anything, or are some more 'gullible' than others?

Herring Gull begging for food

 Little Egret - always nice

(By the way - I haven't gotten around to re-learning how to crop images yet to give more of a close-up of the bird in question. Clicking on the image should enlarge the image (and even lead to a slideshow if you're really lucky), although I like having a bit of scenery around the bird sometimes to be honest. However, I am varying the size of images to try and avoid the need for persons viewing to have to zoom in as a matter of course - I'm sure that could quickly become a tiresome chore. (And I can't absolutely guarantee that all the images are worth a closer look!))