Short but very sweet

The Safari stopped at the supermarket on the way to work but there were no Waxwings to be see. Then we endured the eye-wateringly, cheek-numbingly fierce cold wind on Patch 2 to see very little indeed.

At lunchtime we had another look over the wall to see the same as earlier - nuffin! Later were able to stop at the supermarket again on the way to our school visit. Nothin was in the tree as we drove up and nothin was there when we parked in the car park but out of nowhere it seemed a single Waxwing suddenly appeared. Camera out - time for a snap.

The wind wasn't as strong as yesterday but the treetop was still dancing about a bit.

The rarity here is the blue sky!

After school we spent a few minutes at the nature reserve and soon had five Pintail in the notebook, counting what Wigeon we could see that weren't hiding in the reeds we came across a Great Crested Grebe (MMLNR #72). 60 something Wigeon were counted and then all the Teal dashed out of the reeds and we saw a brown wing fold up...a Bittern (104, 73) it proceeded to show very well if distant across the far side of the mere. At first it stood up looking left then moved a bit and looked right, almost as if it was about to stride across a road, better than that it flew directly towards us and then turned broadside and passed over the reeds right in front of us but landed out of sight in the reeds to our right. Brill - E - ant!

A Buzzard swooped low over the fields in the distance and a Cetti's Warbler briefly sang from near where the Bittern landed.

On the water a very well marked Cormorant with an almost pure white head and neck contrasting with its black crest was unphotographable.

Time was quickly up but we left pretty happy! Not a bad day for not much more than an hour's birding.

Where to next? Not sure where we'll be safari-ing but a chilly Patch 2 will probably be looked at at some stage.

In the meantime let us know what's flying towards you in your outback.