Linnet

The caost beckoned once again, so I headed down the A3 (through some torrential rain I might add) to Titchfield Haven, a National Nature Reserve on the coast near Fareham where the Meon River flows into the Solent.

I had a lovely afternoon wandering around the reserve visiting the hides - but once again bemoaning the limitations of my 300mm lens. Not that it would have helped capture the flash of blue as a Kingfisher sped across the meadows!  I also saw Kestrals hunting and a Buzzard, as well as the usual range of coastal birds (just don;t ask me to name them!)

As I was leaving the reserve I spotted some small brown tits-like birds in a bush, but they were too shy to get a photo - some "birders" leaving at the same time told me they were Sedge Warblers. A few minutes later they pointed out some birds in the hedgerow I personally have never seen before: a pair of linnets.  My blip shows the female, the extra shows the pair, with the male showing off his rosy breast in the late summer sun.