Grass snake

Three times I pressed the shutter and three times the waxwing I was transfixed by turned its head at the exact same monent. Then it flew off to join its friends in the top of the tree. Therefore I have three pictures of a waxwing that aren't really good enough to blip.

Nevertheless the waxwings were an excellent start to an interesting walk with my Dad round the new RSPB reserve at Middleton Hall in Warwickshire. It turns out the reserve doesn't actually open until 14 May but the nice young warden lady let us go round, as she did when P and I turned up there a year ago.

Bluebells are fully out here (I still haven't seen any in Dorset yet) and there were masses of butterflies in the woodland - orange-tips, brimstones, speckled woods, small tortoiseshells and peacocks. And yes, I managed to take a male orange-tip but still not with its wings open.

Round the pools there are redshank, oystercatcher, lapwing, and masses of black-headed gulls. On the way back this grass snake was basking in the sun beside the path. It never woke up, even as we walked by.