At last the mornings are getting lighter and the evenings aren't drawing in quite so quickly and with the prolonged light thoughts turn again to spending time down at my local reserve.
Today was my second visit this year and I spent a few hours down there just enjoying being on the reserve. There was a fair amount of activity there both human and wildlife related. The trust seems to be doing a lot of clearance work to allow better access to the hides, this morning involved dodging a digger to get down the path, and while the water is fairly quiet the bushes and reeds are teeming with activity.
I did snap off a few shots this morning of some of the smaller birds in the hedgerow around the hide.
One of the numerous Dunnock that were flitting in and out of the hedges around my preferred hide. Quite a challenge to get a shot of as they prefer to secret themselves away deep in the hedgerow or at the bases of the hedges.
A male Bullfinch top photograph and female bottom photograph. Last year I only saw one solitary male and then only very infrequently. On the last two visits there have been two male and two female (the female a lot duller in appearance as you can see above) frequenting the area around the hide and the feeders. It is satisfying seeing more Bullfinch around as a solitary bird can be a sad sight especially when long term birders at the reserve tell of quite reasonable numbers of these birds in the past.
A Robin, of which there have been a few flitting around and sitting on the higher branches in the hedgerows singing away. A pleasurable song to listen to but of course Robins are rather agressive little birds and their song is more of a 'keep of my patch or I'll do you in' chant than a song of sweetness.
And finally, a Long Tailed Tit of which there have been numerous little parties of flitting across the path to the hide and in and out of the hedgerows around the hide. Rather sweet, but they certainly don't like hanging around long enough in one spot for the camera to get a good lock on!
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