Here's looking at you at Minsmere!

Had to go to Minsmere today for a meeting then went out on the reserve for a little while. Beautiful sunshine but very chilly wind off the North Sea, never a good direction for wind in the winter!

Took a walk through the temporary North Bushes trail first. This is always a bit of a lottery, especially later in the day, and frequently there's not a bird in sight. Lots of birdsong though today so stood for a while, scanning the trees. My luck was in. 2 Male Bullfinch were feeding. Fabulous looking birds. Unfortunately they were being shy and keeping behind branches so no real photo opportunities. Next up was a Treecreeper, always a nice spot.

Leaving the trail my attention was drawn to several Meadow Pippits feeding amongst the molehills alongside some very smart Robins. Moving on along the path I was suddenly aware of this little beauty grazing on the edge of the bushes. It looked at me for a good 30 seconds before calmly turning tail and disappearing from view. May be a common mammal now in England but Muntjac are quite cute.

Headed back to the Bittern Hide which was a dead loss due to work being done burning debris fro reedbed clearance. Still, it was a beautiful view and there was a distant flying Bittern.

On 7th January I blipped a sighting of Bearded Tits at Minsmere. Decided to retrace those steps, though I knew it was unlikely I'd see any as the wind had really picked up and there were icy showers passing over. However, I carried on to a ditch where the reeds are a bit more sheltered and, lo and behold, an acrobatic Beardie was gorging on seedheads and pogoing over the water. Another, rather damp, birder joined me and it was him that saw a Kingfisher dive into the ditch and return into the reeds. I managed a very ropey photograph of the KF and the BT together - not a common occurrence I bet.

So all in all quite a good day, rounded off with hot chocolate in the cafe.