I would have liked to be able to post lots of glorious pictures this evening and  it's a rare day when I haven't, but with the house full of Christmas visitors it wasn't possible however, I have a few nice garden birds  to report. December last year was a cold Arctic affair and the winter Thrushes came in to garden at the end of  November.  By Christmas the Holly berries had been stripped from the garden tree. Today we had our first Redwings feeding in the Holly and then at the bottom of the garden, 2 Redwings were perched high on the conifer bush. The usual Blue Tits were on the feeders throughout the day as well as a Robin and two Dunnocks.  But the highlight was a nice male Blackcap at lunchtime, and then presumably the same one at dusk.  Blackcaps have not been as frequent in the garden this winter so far, so nice to have a male again.  In the early afternoon I went and sat in the hide on the brook, hoping to get a couple of Kingfisher photos but strangely enough she wasn't there today but after a while a Grey Wagtail came along. Something spooked her unfortunatley so the picture I took is not very good but I have posted it because it clearly shows the female Wagtail that I photographed back in October. She has a white feather on her head so it's possible to recognise her. Glad that she is surviving the winter so far, will be interesting to see  if she stays to pair up with the male that is in the territory. 

Here she is back then.

Whereever you are in the world, (and the blog has had visitors from 140 different countries), can I wish you a Happy Christmas and lets hope that we all, wherever you are, have a peaceful 2012.  I have done a great deal of travelling in my life and the one thing that is common amongst ordinary people is a quest for happiness and contentment. It's just politics, greed and religious fanatics that spoil it for us all. (Oh and shame on you nasty thieves that stole all of my equipment in Spain in August which was one of the low point in the year for me).