Spring finery

At last we've reached the last day of term! I have to say that this stretch between Christmas and Easter has felt like a grind this year, bogged down by bad weather, freezing temperatures, illness and a slight lack of motivation on all our parts. Getting up at six has felt like a real pain at times.

Today I agreed to drop Alex in Huntingdon, and then, because the sun was shining ( a very rare occurrence this spring), I dropped into the Great Fen on the way home. They've recently opened a new car park and information point, with a walk to a hide built out of straw bales. At a talk I attended in February, the manager said that feeders in front of the hide were attracting siskins, redpolls and bramblings, so I thought I'd see if they were still around.

There was a 1km walk across the open fen to get to the hide, which is located on the edge of an area of birch and alder plantation. Although the sun was shining, the brisk wind was blowing in straight from Siberia, and I'd forgotten my hat! But there were skylarks singing above me, their song carrying a faint promise of spring.

The hide was sheltered, and I had it all to myself, so I lingered a while and got some very good views of the promised birds. As I was sitting quietly, this pheasant must have been standing just out of sight near the open entrance to the hide. All of a sudden it gave its mating call - a penetrating shriek followed by rattling of the tail feathers, which certainly made me jump!

I just managed to get one clear shot of it before it went off into the undergrowth. The early morning sun has really brought out the intensity of the colours of this fine male, including the purple sheen on his chest, which can be hard to capture. The whole family agreed that it was so resplendant that it should be my blip for today.