It was a lovely cold and fresh morning as I left for the reserve at Fairburn Ings. I managed to leave home a little earlier today, the air temperature outside was just 3C as I parked the car in the visitors centre car park. The morning weather report in today’s paper was for it to be a bright, dry and sunny day with just a light North Westerly breeze.

I had all my winter gear with me again today and headed for the visitors centre for a coffee and morning update from the wardens. It was just 9.30am when I unpacked my camera gear at the ‘Pick up hide’, there was nobody else photographing so I had the hide to myself for most of the morning.

The lake in front of the hide had a thin layer of ice on the surface which stayed frozen till late this morning. There was only a pair of Mallards scouring the water’s edge searching for food, later in the morning they came over to the feeding station to the right of the hide. By mid-morning there was still little activity by the lake other than a small group of juvenile Black Headed Gulls which landed on the ice but as it was still frozen soon left.

In the field to the right of the hide a small herd of Highland Cattle were busily grazing, the wardens have removed the fence recently which separated this field from the area around the lake and during the morning two of the cattle ventured across one to the left of the lake up to the front of the hide, the other one steadily made its way up to the Sand Martin wall before heading off to join the rest of its group. These beautiful big beasts should make quite a difference grazing around the lake and the water’s edge and will certainly open up and clear a lot of the debris that is there at the moment, it will be interesting to watch and see the effect they make to the area.

Closer to the hide, I had to put a handful of feed out this morning as all the three feeders were empty. The first visitor was the Willow Tit, super-fast, it flew in from my right-hand side onto the fence post where I had put out some sunflower seeds, by the time I had picked the bird up in my viewfinder it was well gone, back into the deep undergrowth, I only saw it once again throughout the morning which was a shame. Regular and more frequent visitors though were the Great Tits and Blue Tits, along with Chaffinch and Greenfinch, of the four types of birds the Blue Tits appear far more timid than the rest, they are very nervy around the feeders whereas the Great Tit, Chaffinch and Greenfinch will boldly sit there all day and be completely oblivious to anything else going on around them.

I had three Grey Squirrels for company all morning too, just being a nuisance eating the food I had put out for the birds, either be it on the fence post or suspended upside down persistently trying to salvage the last scraps of food from the already empty bird feeders.

Another stalwart of the hide this morning was all the Robins, I counted at least four of them at anyone time this morning, they prefer to take the food off the floor or fence post rather than the feeder, some are that familiar that they will even take the food from the palm of your outstretched arm.

It was nice to see several pair of Reed Buntings this morning, they too prefer feeding off the floor or fence post rather than the feeders. The male Chaffinch were on good form today, they are a beautifully coloured bird, their orange coloured breast and grey head looking quite stunning in the dappled morning sunlight, they seem quite content sitting on the tree branches for several minutes at a time, just watching the world go by.

Another frequent visitor today was the Tree Sparrow another solid sturdy bird, It seems strange that we don’t get any of these at home, lots of House Sparrows but no Tree Sparrows, I think they look quite cheeky with the black patch on either side of their faces.

About 11.00am I could hear the call of a Buzzard high up in the sky circling above the hide, it looked beautiful as it glided effortlessly in the morning sunlight, unfortunately a pair of Crows decided enough was enough and after a little bit of a dog fight despatched the Buzzard in the direction of the Coal Tips Trail. One of these days I will see the Buzzard having a set too with a Crow and am pretty certain who the winner would be.

The Goldfinches and Coal Tits kept popping in during the morning, not as frequently as last week but still nice to see.

Several Dunnock were round and about, they along with the Chaffinch were busily searching for seed which I had scattered over the fence near to the water’s edge, once or twice during the morning they would find a predominant tree branch and sing their heads off, lovely to watch and listen too.

The Pheasant family were never far away, the male birds were showing nicely on top of the Sand Martin wall, their plumage looking beautiful, especially when the sunlight highlighted the golden browns of their cape and back feathers.

As the morning progressed there were more and more visitors to the hide so at about 11.45am I decided to call it a day and head back to the Visitors Centre for a coffee before the journey home. It has been another lovely morning at the reserve.