There had been a bitterly cold overnight frost when I woke this morning, the grass had quite a white frosty sheen on it today.   I was out of the house with M & G just before 7.00am and it made a pleasant change not to have to wear my waterproof jacket for a change. We had a great dog walk albeit somewhat muddy underfoot, we returned home just after 8.00am. It was a lovely morning, the sun was trying to break through and looked like a promising day ahead. Jen was away golfing all day, so after a cup of tea and some breakfast, I headed over to the reserve at Fairburn for a couple of hours. I left the dogs hard fast asleep in the kitchen, with the radio on in the background should they wake up. 

It was just after 9.30am when I arrived in the Visitors Centre, still quite cool though at 4C with a light westerly breeze, the sun was just beginning to come over the tops of the trees on the left. After a chat with the Wardens I took my coffee with me and headed over to the ‘Pick up Hide’.  I followed the usual footpath to the hide, looking over to the left a slight mist was rising of the water, the bulrushes around the edges of the pond were glistening with frost as they swayed gently in the light morning breeze.

The hide was empty when I arrived so after deciding where to sit I got the camera gear out of the rucksack, set it all up, securely locked it onto the tripod head before heading round to put some bird seed out, all the feeders were empty less the Squirrel proof fat ball feeder on to which a Grey Squirrel was precariously suspended trying in earnest to reach the fat balls inside. Looking out over the lake were several pairs of Mallard, a small group of three juvenile Black headed Gulls and a pair of Coots. Behind me the Green Woodpecker was making quite a noise, I don’t think it was happy about me being in the hide.  Looking back towards the feeders I counted five Grey Squirrels eating the seed which I had put out a few minutes earlier, what they left which wasn’t much, the six Hen Pheasants finished off the remainder. I gave them several minutes before I went round and replenished the seed again. This time the young finches had returned by the time I got back to my camera, the male Chaffinch are looking really colourful at the moment, in fact all the male birds are looking colourful. I counted at least four Robins flitting around, one in particular kept flying through the hide window and sitting on the window sill next to my camera! 

Away from the hide the Jacob sheep were still on the far side of the lake, grazing amongst the long grass at the water’s edge. Heron and Cormorants were still patiently sat on their nests to the far right of the hide, occasionally they would sit up, flap their wings and have a look around before sitting back down on their nests.

Back on the feeders and the Great Tits were busily feeding on this new supply of seed, several Dunnock were round and about, it was nice to catch a glimpse of the Willow Tit this morning, it popped in to feed three times whilst I was there, it doesn’t hang around though, no sooner has it arrived then it had gone again, similarly with the Coal Tits.

A Cock Pheasant came strutting through as did the Rabbit, though after my last visit when the Pheasant gave the Rabbit a good going over the Rabbit kept its distant from the big feisty Cock bird this morning.  The Long Tailed Tits made several visits during the morning, four of them at a time, straight onto the fat balls, they pick up a mouthful of food before returning to the undergrowth to digest it, before returning again. A pair of Wood Pigeons flew in for a snack this morning though the Grey Squirrel was having none of it and thought nothing of scampering up the fence post and nipping the tail feathers of the pigeons causing them to lose balance and fly off.

As the time approached 11.00am a handful of visitors started to visit the hide so shortly after 11.15am I decided to call it a day and return to the Visitors Centre for a coffee before the journey home. It was another lovely morning at the ings.