I managed to get a few nice photographs today but it took a lot of patience and a degree of good luck. There are still lots of good  opportunities around and the day dawned with a covering of snow.  I had been waiting for just a day like this and when, quite early on I saw that there was a female Blackcap on the snow covered apple, I quickly got myself in position with a hot cup of  coffee and loads of anticipation.  The view through the camera was superb with the bright red fruit sparkling in the sun but for some strange reason, the Blackcap just would.t come back to the apple. Well, not while I was there anyway. M strategy was to just sit and wait, and hope that she would show up but in spite of  three sessions of more than an hour, and it was cold, very cold……….. she didn’t pose for me. I stuck it out for as long as I could, giving in to the cold before the  stiffness. Later on as I watched from indoors, there she was!  Annoying to say the least because it is unlikely that she knows I am in the hide. I took a few photos from the kitchen which didn’t turn out too bad after all.  At almost dusk, the garden was suddenly invaded by a small flock  of Britain’s smallest, and in my opinion, prettiest thrush the Redwing. We have a berry laden cotoneaster bush which they stripped last year and it looks as though thats going to happen again this winter.  Redwing are winter visitors and this time last year when we had bad weather they were noticeable in lots of suburban gardens up and down the country.  So far it’s just been Blackbirds and Redwing but last year we had an almost “full house” of the UK’s Thrush species in the garden, the only species absent being a Ring Ouzel. The Redwing were posing really beautifully today.  I carefully and quietly opened an upstairs window, rested the camera and took the best pictures possible given the available light, which was fading fast.