Wednesday 22nd. February 2012

They said it would be 'Springlike' today , but no one told the weather . With rain due after lunch , and the warmer ? weather , I decided to try once more for my first Brambling of the Winter , and headed for Bough Beech Reservoir , a Kent Wildlife Trust site . I did not succeed in my quest , and found very little , due mainly to a very strong wind blowing down the reservoir , making it look like the North Sea . So this post will take the picture and comment form .

From the new hide overlooking the Roy Coles Scrape , a Lapwing was meticulously preparing a hollow on one of the small islands , while it's mate stayed on the other island .

A male Kestrel flew over with something in it's talons . A bad shot as it was about to move on having seen me , showed that the 'something' looked very much like one of the many Blue Tits around .

This male GSWoodpecker stayed just long enough for one shot before he too departed .

It was good to see , and hear , a good number of House Sparrows , fingers crossed , they seem to be on their way back .

One of the local Robins was wrestling with it's breakfast , but it downed it in the end .

Watch out little fellah , that Kestrel could be looking for seconds .

The only wader seen today , was this Common Snipe , probing the edge of the small North Lake .

Further up the bank , this Pied Wagtail was definitely struggling to find any insects in that wind .

A picture of concentration as one of at least a dozen Grey Heron seen , tries , and got , it's meal .
On the reservoir , lots of Teal , a few Wigeon and Pochard and at least 40 Cormorant .

On the way home , a Rook in the horse paddock on the bottom lane posed , for once .

And finally , I mentioned yesterday that I thought there might be 3 youngsters in the Grey Heron nest . When I processed some of the other shots taken , just one showed a third bill , behind the adult's legs .