I managed a good early start to the day this morning. Outside we had had a hard overnight frost, so hard in fact that it froze the water in our garden bird bath. I had taken Meg & Gracie out in the dark earlier this morning for their walk, the moon shining nicely through the trees on the Barff and by the time we returned home the sun was just breaking through on the skyline.

After breakfast, the dogs had settled and were quite sleepy after their exercise that I left them both asleep in my favourite chair in the sun lounge. I packed the car with my camera gear and drove over to the reserve at Fairburn for the morning. After a chat and coffee in the visitors centre with the wardens I headed to the ‘Pick up hide’. It was 9,45am as I was setting up and assembling the gear, I was the only person at the hide this morning though with the temperature still showing 1C I wasn’t surprised. Much of the lake in front of the hide was frozen so there was very little activity on the ice or even the fringes. By 10.00am the sun had started to rise above the ‘coal tips’ to the left of the hide and the frost on the wooden fences was beginning to melt. 

One or two visitors popped into the hide but as the lake was still frozen they didn’t hang around for long and soon continued their walk around the reserve. Under the feeding station were four Hen Pheasants scratching for food under the empty feeders, I had a couple of small packets of bird food in my camera bag so scattered some seeds and nuts on the ground until the wardens came and topped up the feeders. Blue Tit, Chaffinch and Great Tits were regular visitors, along with the Dunnock and Robin. A lone Rabbit even popped in until the Pheasant ganged up on it and it headed off towards the Sand martin wall. It was nice to see the Willow Tit popping in for some nourishment, they appeared quite skittish today their behaviour very similar to that of the Long Tailed Tits, by that I mean they come in straight onto the food, take a mouthful and fly off to a place of safety to eat it, they don’t hang around at all. It was nice to see a pair of Bullfinches, both the male and female bird were looking in great condition, the male being quite bullish whilst feeding and not letting any of the other smaller finches come anywhere near it, the female bird preferring to stay amongst the undergrowth and feed on the remaining berries. A small flock of Long Tailed Tits flew in for a five minute feed frenzy, they prefer the fat balls, once they have had their fill that was the last I saw of them. A female Reed Bunting spent some time flitting between the bushes and the feeders. 

The cold North Westerly wind was pretty unpleasant this morning and by 11.00am was beginning to bite into me a bit. I persevered for another thirty minutes, during that time I witnessed a battle between three Grey Squirrels who were scrapping over supremacy over control of the bird feeders! 

The winter colours on and around the lake looked quite beautiful this morning, the sun light glistening on the frost on the reed beds and bulrushes as they swayed in the breeze, it made quite a picture and quite a contrast to this time last year when the wardens and staff heavily cut back the reed beds and re contoured the area in front of the hide, what a difference within the twelve months and nice to see how nature has taken control again.