Winter in the air

What a difference a few days make. I woke up this morning to a small dusting of slushy snow on the car and a very biting wind blowing. Still, mustn't let it stop me going out, so off I pottered down to Maple Lodge for the morning work party. By about 10 it had actually become quite pleasant for standing up to your knees in mud pulling up willow saplings!!!
After coming back home for tea and mince pies I grabbed my camera and went back in the hope of getting one of the resident kingfishers sitting out in the winter sunshine. The wind though was blowing a bit too much so although I saw them flying around they never perched nearby.
There was a nice flock of siskins and goldfinches in the alders by puddingstone feeding away though.

Outside Long Hedge hide was much quieter now that the gull colony has moved off. Even the ducks seemed to be hiding away!

There was a bit of activity on the water though. This little grebe was hunting for fry amongst the roots on the edge of the lake,

whist it's larger cousin was looking for larger food out in the main channel.

and this jet-powered cormorant favoured the main lake.

Finally, there were two little egrets fishing amongst the roots on the far bank. Most of the time they were just shapes in the distance but you could make out their shapes occasionally.

One did eventually get bored though and gave me quite a nice fly past showing off it's rather bizarre yellow feet!

The fading light and fact it was getting VERY cold finally drove me back home though for another very welcome cup of tea. It definitely feels wintery now!