A bleak Good Friday weatherwise. After a late start it was a trip down to the nature reserve. The old chap we met in the first hide told us it was very quiet and that he had seen very little of interest. He wished us luck.

We headed to the aptly named feeding station where we had our sandwiches, cake and flasks of tea. We share different taste in tea. I like mine strong and with only a little milk, while NM prefers hers to be very milky flavoured earl grey.

We settled down in the uncovered hide and were treated to lots of different birds: great tits, blue tits, long tailed tits, willow or marsh tits, blackcap, thrush, robin, jays by the sackful, magpies, nuthatch, robins, chaffinches and a couple of woodpeckers.

On Lapwing lake on our way back to the car we saw some greylag geese and cormorants.

In other news robins are building their nest in the robin box set into the ivy covered wall in the garden so you can expect some photos of them as well as the pair of bullfinches who have become regular feeders in the last couple of weeks.