Just to keep up to date there hasn’t been much opportunity to take photos today but there was a tiny window of bright light at around lunch time. from the pop-up hide I snapped away at the Goldfinch visitors and I quite liked this one.

This bird is almost certainly a female. You can tell this by the amount of red on the face and also the buffish, not white feathers. No Siskins seen today in the garden but the Hen Blackcap has been here almost all day off and on. We had a Blue Tit come to feed, they are not nearly as common in my garden as you would think and we haven’t had a Coal Tit for what seems ages. You may remember that they were constant visitors up until around Christmas time. The Robin that we ringed at our ringing session a few Sundays ago is still in the garden. I clearly saw the ring which was placed on the left leg, they normally are on the right but by being different this would give me the chance to identify him/her as “my” bird. With very low mizzly cloud.. that’s a cross between mist and drizzle …. if you were wondering, there has been little point in taking the camera out. I went for a little drive though to see if the Scaup female was on the canal but no sign of her now so I guess she has moved on. The Cattle Egrets were in the distance at Powderham, at least 200 hundred yards away and I was surprised when I drove past to see three or four birdwatchers scoping them. But hey, not much else to look it in these very, very overcast conditions. I had a quick look in the river by Salmon Pool Weir to see if there was anything interesting and disturbed a Grey Heron so that could be a good place to sit in the hide and and get some close-up fishing shots possibly. I also saw another large flock of Fieldfare in the back lanes. All in all a pretty awful dreary day