Would have loved to have gone down to Dawlish today with Geri,Kevin and Mike Hogan but with other stuff to do in the afternoon I thought I'd stay local with a morning stroll down to the sewage works where during the winter a pair of Goosander can sometimes be found on the adjacent River Llynfi,a nice photographic challenge.
There were lots of woodland birds around and a scavenging tit flock of Blue,Great and Long Tailed carried nothing more interesting with them.
A couple of Ravens and Common Buzzards passed overhead but there were no Goosanders to be found today although four different very vocal Dippers and a couple of Grey Wagtails were nice to see.
As I walked back to the car I managed to get some shots of an unusually photogenic Treecreeper on the edge of the damp woodland adjacent the access track.
These birds can be devilishly difficult to photograph so I was pleased to get some reasonable images in quite good light.
I re-parked the car at the Tylers Arms and strolled up through Darren Woods in the hope of a possible LS Woodpecker,no such luck today but lots of other woodland birds including a nice Nuthatch pecking seven bells out of an acorn it had wedged in a groove in the branch of an Oak tree.
A quick visit to the Rushie Pen also enabled me to get a couple of photos of Bewick's Swan albeit annoyingly through glass.
I also managed to get some "stock" photos of close up common species whilst the other lads went off to successfully locate the redhead Smew on the South Pool.
The light for photography had been abysmal all day much to mine and Peter's annoyance and with snow coming down for much of the time at Slimbridge we headed for Aust Warth with the light fading in the vain hope of catching up with a hunting Short-eared Owl.
Certainly brightened up an otherwise dreary day especially when a party of Long Tailed Tits dropped in whilst doing a feeding circuit.
