Kingfisher and friend.

What a wonderful end ( almost) to 2014
A beautiful day, and just needed to wrap up well, as it was only 2C.
A walk round RSPB Fairburn Ings turned out to be something special.
Although the lakes were almost frozen over.
Started with seeing 2 long- eared owls roosting in some trees near one of the lakes. Fortunately someone told us where to look, or we would never have spotted them. ( Photos not good enough to put on Blip I'm afraid)
At the other end of the reserve we were told there was a kingfisher about. This time I was able to take a better photo, although I only had my little pocket Lumix with me. I thought the best photo was the one including the coot. So hope you like it too.
The colours were so bright in the afternoon sun.
Here is a list of the other birds we saw:
3 snipe
1 water rail
goldfinches
green finches
chaffinches
great tits
blue tits
cole tits
long tailed tits
moorhen
teal
mallard
kestrel
cormorants 
swans
robin
blackbirds
redwing
tree sparrow
pigeon
greylag geese
canada geese
little greeb
gulls
pheasant
lapwing
crow
Wren
heron

You can see why it was a good day out!
Now the sun has gone down, it is coming very cold again.
Still have some snow, and our road is becoming very icy.

Hope you all have a very Happy New Year's Eve tomorrow.