The Safari was the nominated driver this week but unexpected car issues meant we were kindly driven up the motorway by CR for another day out at the fabulous Leighton Moss. The weather looked fine with nice sunshine but unfortunately it clouded over for most of the timne we were there. That didn't stop the fun though. We had high hopes of Bearded Tits, Otters, Red Deer stags and a suporting cast of Redwings and Siskins along with much more so how did we fare?
First stop was the grit trays on laong the path to the Grizedale Hide where we saw a group eargly awaiting the arrival of the Bearded Tits, how did we know this...well no-one was pointing binoculars or cameras at the reed bed so we deduced the stars of the show weren't playing out. And nearly right we were, we thought the folks were waiting but they told us we should have been there five minutes earlier...dohhh. We waited a couple of minutes but as there was no action and no sounds of 'pinging' coming from the reeds we walked the few yards on to the hide. Here we had some Marsh Harrier action, with a male and a female passing by doing the rounds of the reedbed looking for unsuspecting prey.
As we said earlier we'd lost the sunshine and the light wasn't great now, although a nearby sleepy drake Teal was nicely lit showing his newly aquired vermiculations very well.
Almost all there with his moult, just a few more feathers to go like most of his drake ducky companions - none of them were quite at their 'out-of-eclipse' finest yet.
From the furthest reachess of the reedbed to our right a Great White Egret flew in and landed on the right hand edge of the pool. 
We watched for a while as the harriers did more passes, mostly distant - how is it some birders post pics of these which appear to be taken from only a few yards from the hide window when every time we see them they're invariably miles away? We noted a good selection of dabbling ducks, the Pintail and Shovelers binging to look might fine. The Blue Winged Teal look-alike Cinnamon Teal x Shoveler hybrid was also there but remained fast asleep the whole time. It's a bonny bird right enough and always worthy of a pic but even though it was fairly close it was facing away and was obscured by a fair bit of intervening vegetation so we didn't press the shutter on this occasion.
Moving on we retraced our steps past the grit trays where there was a different posse of eager watchers not watching just chatting so we passed quickly by heading for the Tim Jackson Hide. En route we bumped into KL and friend who showed us pics of their seriously prolonged and close Otter encounter out on the saltmarsh earlier in the morning...not jealous at all!!!
Already ensconced within the hide was old mate DP who informed us there hadn't been any Red Deer on show and all there was for our delectation were a few Mallards, a couple of Mute Swans and a Moorhen or two, oh - and some Gadwall. We didn't stay long deciding to head to the far end of the reserve to have our pies etc at the Lower Hide so off we set at a brisk walk. A couple were staring intently into a pathside bush and showed us a Treecreeper working its way round the truck, there was a second on on the other side of the path too - both too deep in the foliage to warrent a pic but they were the vanguard of what was to become 'Bird of the Day'. Cetti's Warblers were giving them a run for their money, there were loads of them, one singing unseen every few yards - remember the good old days when these were a real rarity?
A very brief look at the Feeding Station gave us Coal Tits and a Marsh Tit among the more numerous Blue and Great Tits and Chaffinches. Any how as we were hightailing it down the boardwalk towards the causeway a small flock of thrushes flew overhead, we got on to one, a Mistle Thrush and we thought the one before it was too, but the others not seen properly before they disappeared over the treetops sounded like Fieldfares. As we drew close to the grit trays the birders there beckoned us to come quickly. Thank you very much...a pair of Bearded Tits were gritting up on one of the trays. They change their diet from invertebrates to seeds in the autumn and need the grit to help grind down the harder seeds in their gizzards.
Fantastic little things even if they're not in the tit family and haven't got beards...really they should be called Moustchioed Reedlings or even Moustachioed Parrotbills although the former is probably the better name as they're in a seperate family from the rest of the parrotbills too.
They had their fill of grit and flitted into the reedbed and out of view, they don't have to go more than a couple of stems in to disappear completely. However we could tell where they were by the shaking of the tops of the reeds as they moved through. Luckily the male decided to climb to the top of one of the tall stems and showed just long enough for us to have a stab at the shutter button.
Result - job done, they're always a very welcome treat.
Once they'd snuck back into the depths of the reedbed we wandered on to the Causeway Hide, no news from those inside of any Otters so far today. The water level was quite high and a good scan revealed not a lot out of the ordinary, best of the bunch was probably the Little Grebe to our right. The camera just had to be pointed at a Moorhen that swam past the hide just as the sun broke through, brilliant things - One of the best birds in the book, if not THE best bird!
The sunshine brought out a pair of Migrant Hawkers that flew past the window, at one point it looked like they might come through the window, and another single individual but our butties now seriously beckoned so it was time to move on again. Walking down the Causeway we passed another Treecreeper and heard more Cetti's Warblers than you could shake a stick at. The walk along the woodland edge beyond the gate didn't give us the hoped for Siskins in the Alder trees nor any Fieldfares or Redwings in the fields on the right, even the local Jays weren't playing out there today.
Once in the hide we were told 'we should have been here five minutes ago' there had been an Otter very close...dohhh
We got our butties out and began to get stuck in when the call went up - Otter coming from the right. Now we were in a dilema - butty or bins, camera or butty??? The large over-filler wholemeal barm cake won hands down as the Otter was a long way off and only showing the very top of the top of its head when it surfaced, certainly not worth dropping food for.
A Marsh Harrier that had been mooching about in the distance came closer and began to circle over the Otter and then did something we'd never seen before - started fishing like an Osprey. It was as if it knew the Otter, even though it was only travelling not fishing on this ocassion, might scare some fish towards the surface.
The swirl to the right of the harrier is the Otter submerging.
Rather than swallow it whole it took it to an adjacent island to pick apart.
Sadly, for phtographic purposes at least, it was totally unsuccessful, not so much as a scale was caught in those talons. There were thoughts among the birders in the hide that it had spent the last few weeks watching the Ospreys fishing and got some handy tips from them. They are known to take fish but in all our years watching them we've never seen one actively fishing like this before, we'd guess that most of the fish they do eat is either as carrion or dying at the surface rather than caught in this 'Osprey-like' fashion.
A Sparrowhawk shot across the cut reed below the hide window in the hope of flushing an unwary Snipe but nothing came up for it to chase, it had done this ealrier too apparently and was likely the reason there were no Snipe nor Jack Snipe for us to watch. Cetti's Warblers sang and Teal snoozed as we waited for the Otter to put in another appearance. It didn't so headed back to Grizedale Hide in the hope of some Red Deer action. Once again there were no Siskins in the woodland and no Bearded Tits on the grit trays as we passed. A male Common Darter on the final bend of the boardwalk was too quick for us zipping into the reedbed before we could lift our cameras. A female a few yards further on was much more photogenic, posing for ages on the handrail even allowing several people to walk close by without flying off.
She sat so still we tried a shot from a jaunty angle.
The grit trays down towards the Grizedale Hide produced the goods this time too, again a pair of Bearded Tits provided the entertainment.
At the hide the duck had shuffled round a bit since we left although it has to be said most were still asleep. The Pintail were a little more active than earlier and a single male had strayed quite close. He'll look even more splendid when his pin tail-feather grows in a weeek or so's time.
The Cinnamon Teal x Shoveler hybrid had changed its sleeping location but was now in exactly the same position as before just further away but slightly less obscured by vegetation.
There was negative news of any Red Deer activity too so with the afternoon now moving on a pace we thought it time to visit the saltmarsh pools. Off we went towards the car park but within a couple of minutes another couple of Treecreepers caught our attention, we'd seen so many today it would have been rude not to have tried to get a pic or two. Actually we only managed to get this not very good one.
We did get our Siskin, but only as a fly-over - no chance of a pic, so one still needed for our Photo Challenge which is currently on 174 species of birds photographed this year.
At the Allen Pool we opened the window, looked out and closed them again, the pool was a birdless desert save for a couple of lonely Shelducks. We hoped there'd be a lot more action on the Eric Morecambe Pool. Thankfully there was, all the usual suspects of duck were there along with a small selection of wading birds, Lapwings, Redshank, Little Egrets and four Snipe. No sign of the Otter that KL had seen in the morning though. A Marsh Harrier flew through and caused a bit of a panic especially among the Lapwings which looked to have a smaller wader with them when they got up, perhaps a Ruff or a Golden Plover, but when they landed and settled down we couldn't find anything out of the ordinary amongst them.
On the island closest to the window a handful of Wigeon loafed and grazed. 
One male in particular started whistling - we thought it would be fun to whistke back...it worked we whistled he whistled back several times. Here he is having a listen.
We must have sounded interesting as another male started to walk towards us as if to check out who was making all the noise.
We thought better of teasing them any further and kept quiet allowing them to go about their business.The light was beginning to fade when a Great White Egret flew in, landing some way off in the far corner.
While many in the hide were watching that we spotted a 'proper bird' coming in from the right - a gull. We assumed (=mis-identified) it was a Great Black Back - tut tut!!! It was a Lesser Black Back, our error stemmed from the fact that on back on our local patch we've not seen a Lesser Black Back for a few weeks now so (wrongly) assumed they's all left for sunnier climes (many do but not all, some do spend the winter in Britain). We've got a bit of a talk on gulls coming up so thought this would be a good opportunity to get some flight shots and other general ID pics so we swapped over to the Allen Pool windows only to see it swoop down and catch a Green Shore Crab.
We have to say this isn't a particularly safe place for Green Shore Crabs after we watched a Redshank and a Little Egret eating them on our previous visit a couple of weeks back.
Our time was now up and back down the motorway to Base Camp we headed, after a grand day out on safari.
Where to next? A lot may depend on how sickly our car is but we're sure we'll be out on safari again very soon, even if it's only through the window at Base Camp.
In the meantime let us know who's flavour of the month for all the predators in your outback.
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