Dull and dreary - well it is January so what do you expect?

The Safari hasn't had the chance to get the camera out much and only odd few minutes worth looking over the wall at the sea. The weather these last couple of days has been wall to wall low cloud and drizzle but we have seen some good stuff. We've had two school groups out pond dipping in our work's pond as part of their year long study of the habitat.

They've done well and found quite a bit more aquatic life than we thought they would given the pond was frozen hard last week. Sadly the very dull conditions haven't let us get the camera out. Perhaps the best bits have been the lack of 3-spined Sticklebacks, which may be the reason for more of the invertebrate finds, and they always like a Bloodworm, especially when it gets chomped by a large Diving Beetle of unknown species. Predation in action - the class loved it!!! The third group comes tomorrow - what will they pull out? Hopefully a lot and there'll be some sunshine so we can show you.

Today a short lunchtime look over the sea wall gave us about 1000 very distant Common Scoters and a Red Throated Diver (65, P2 #19). No chance of any pics in the grim conditions. They were a little closer yesterday but still too far away for an 'identifiable' pic for our Photo Challenge.

They really could be almost anything, maybe even birds!

Later in the afternoon we had an errand to run to take some stamps to the local RSPB centre for their Save the Albatross appeal @AlbyTaskForce on Twitter if you use social media. While there we took the opportunity to have a look at the lake and see if their were any photogenic subjects on offer. Shortly after lunch we got a rare glimpse of the sun but by the time we'd got down to the lake it had well and truly gone back in and the usual drizzle was beginning to be felt in the air.

Not to worry, we had a couple of subjects that were reasonably close. As ever around a lake someone had thrown some bread at the ducks and that had attracted the attention of some of the local Jackdaws and Black Headed Gulls.

A pair of Moorhens were a little more timid, taking their time to suss out if it was safe enough to cross the short stretch of water where the boats are moored up in the summer.

Walking further round towards the island a flock of mostly male Pochards (66) was loafing around doing nothing in particular. In the poor light they were really too far away for any sensible pics but we fired a few shots off anyway...just to increase our Photo Challenge tally, well the pic might be rubbish but they are identifiable.

Where to next? Depending on which weather forecast we look at there just might be a bit of sun, or at least lighter cloud, by lunchtime tomorrow and then of course there's the school kids pond dipping so hopefully we'll have plenty to tell you about.

In the meantime time let us know who's in the mist in your outback.