Blue and a Few

A Blue Tit and a few other birds.

A Grey Heron.

A Pied Wagtail on ice. 

It was funny to watch this and one other of this species slipping about on ice in a field searching for food. Not quite up to Torvill and Dean standard.

A Great Tit trying to hide.

Can you see the Wren.....

..........Yes there he is.

I was fortunate to find this little Wren below moving around the trunk of a large tree

This below was a quick shot (one of two) at a bird at distance that then disappeared behind trees. 

From the brief view I had of it something didn't look quite right.

A heavily cropped version of the second and quite poor shot of this Crow revealed that it had what looked like a Freshwater Mollusc in its beak.

Teal Waters

A few images of the Teal Duck (Anas crecca) on 'Still' waters.

Teal are the smallest of the European ducks and are surface feeders.

This is a great time to start watching Teal as the males are looking to impress the females and will start to become very active shortly. This involves the funny movements with the head and neck and swimming around in circles and calling in a high pitched piping noise.

Cold Lakes

Most of the largest of the three lakes in the Parkland was frozen over on the morning of this walk.

Water birds will on these occasions find the remaining open water and congregate at that spot. 

They will tolerate each other more than usual. (Even Coots)

Geese such as the Greylags below, if they start making a noise and facing into the wind with their heads up, this will mean only one thing. Take off is about to occur. 

Sony Alpha 7.  35mm f2.8 lens.  1/1000 at f4.  ISO100 

The surrounding fields were frosty with little wind blowing and the sun was weak.

Goldfinch eating seed from the Alder cones.

Sony Alpha 7.  35mm f2.8 lens.  1/125 at f11.  ISO100

More Ice Art

Below in the distance a Grey Heron stands on the bank.

This little stretch of water was flowing freely and I had seen Kingfisher just around the corner.

A close up of the Heron

A close up of another Heron at the other end of this stretch of water.

Sitting on the ice in the middle of the gulls is the male Goosander that appears to have taken up residence for a while.

Below a second year Herring Gull (Maybe)

Greylags taking off in the distance.

Just like watching waders on the shoreline. 

Its no fun for Mallards at this time.

During the afternoon as the Sun gets low in the sky, it was below freezing and even the Greylags had decided to sit it out on the ice. 

(What was I still doing out here {:)) )

Roll on the Spring.

Jay - The Food Storer

This Jay was busily searching out food amongst a grass verge and around a small copse.

They will bury food such as acorns to be consumed at a later date.

It remembered hiding something in this half rotted tree trunk.

Not a clear image, but you can see it actually found what it was looking for.