MONDAY - LONGHAM (FROZEN) LAKES

 In view of the fact that there had been a most unusual visitor to Longham Lakes on Saturday, an

AVOCET
there was little more than a cursory race around the local patch but realistically not much chance of connecting with the wanderer? No surprises to find both lakes more or less completely frozen over with small numbers of Waterfowl and Gulls such as

WIGEON

GADWALL

BLACK-HEADED GULL

skating on thin ice
along with a small group of

TUFFTED DUCK
on what little open water there was, but still no signs of the Avocet which was the overall result of the visit.
However, that was by no means the end of it as sticking to the central pathway

dividing the 2 lakes and finding a vocal

WATER RAIL
at the same time as encountering a young couple photographing a small bird in the margins. Had we been given 1,000 guesses as to the species we would never have come up with

REDPOLL

in a thousand years.

Not a frequent visitor to the site but having done so since the 70's

we have never heard of let alone seen this species at this site

which as you might imagin put quite a spring into our step!
In line with that there was also a most obliging

ROBIN
and almost overlooking a

LITTLE EGRET

on the 

Main Island
and finally a couple of shots of

both

CETTI'S WARBLER

and

REED BUNTING