A Happy New Year to one and all. I do not know where the time has gone, Christmas seems to have been and gone in a breath.

I had my first visit of the year to the reserve today. It was bitterly cold morning, the air temperature was just 3C fortunately there was no wind otherwise it would have been quite unpleasant. There was just a handful of cars in the visitors car park when I arrived at 9.30am. I popped in to the visitors centre for a coffee and an update from the wardens before heading off to the ‘Pick up hide’.

The hide was empty when I arrived, no sooner had I put my camera bag down and set up the camera clamp than a Robin came and sat on the shelf alongside my camera, as it happens I always carry a couple of small cartons of bird seed in my camera bag, so I got one of these out and opened it up for the Robin to have a morning snack whilst I continued setting up the camera and lens etc. It stayed with me for about five minutes either feeding on its new found source of food or sitting on one of the observation windows.

Over on the lake everything was quiet, the water was flat calm with just a pair of Mute Swans busily preening themselves. There was much more activity on the feeding station though with several Robins hovering around the remnants of the empty feeders hoping for a scrap of food, I counted at least four at any one time which was nice to see. I am pretty certain that lots of our human visitors have started to target the Robins hence their tameness by putting food in their hands and whilst the Robin lands on the food laden hand their partner takes a video or photograph of the whole episode.

A female Reed Bunting kept popping in for food, along with Coal Tits and Dunnock. It was nice to see the Willow Tit which was a regular visitor along with six Long Tailed Tits that flew in on mass several times during the morning. 

A pair of male pheasants was staying close to the feeders, their colours looking quite vibrant in the morning sunlight. By 11.30am the cold was beginning to bite on my finger ends needless to say I had left my gloves at home in one of my dog walking jackets! So I packed the camera kit away before I lost all the feeling in my hands and headed back to the visitors centre for a coffee and home.