Redpoll, Black Tailed Godwits and a cast of Greylake regulars!

On Sunday (20th December) the little known natural phenomemon known as sunny weather paid Somerset a rare visit. To celebrate, I grabbed my under-employed Nikon and made haste to RSPB Greylake to take advantage of the unusually bright conditions!
    The Reed Buntings were making use of the food left out in the car park, joined by Starling, Chaffinches and Blue and Great Tits.
   A Great Spotted Woodpecker has become quite brave, coming down to the peanut feeder whilst I stood out in the open just 10 metres away!
  I walked to the hides and was surprised to find that they weren't very busy at all!
There were hundreds if not thousands of birds in front of them, stretched out over the fields and marshes, mostly the Winter ducks of Wigeon, Teal and Shoveler, and the wading Lapwings and Golden Plovers.
   Other birds seen during my 2 hours from 11am -1pm included Raven, Rook, Carrion Crows, Little Egret, Peregrine, Great White Egret, Heron, Snipe, 15+ Black Tailed Godwits, Moorhens, Mallard, Pied Wagtail, Wren, Robin and Dunnock.
    On the return path to the car park I saw a small bird at the top of a reed stem, it was silhouetted by the sun behind but I managed a couple of pictures before it flew off into some of the nearby bushes. As I had suspected, it turned out to be a Redpoll, a bird I'd only ever seen about 4 times in my life before! Very happy was I!
   In the car park a few Redwings flew up into the surrounding trees and the Woodpecker paid a visit again.
    I love this RSPB reserve. Not the biggest, but always lots to see!

Below are some of the pictures from my visit;

^Above^ - Male and female Wigeon.

^Above^ - Teal.

^Above^ - Shoveler.

^Above^ - Mallard.

^Above^ - Various duck, mostly Wigeon.

^Above^ - Lapwings.

^Above^ - Bickering Moorhens!

^Above^ - Snipe.

^Above^ - Flocks of Lapwings and Golden Plover.

^Above^ - Black Tailed Godwits.

^Above^ - Pied Wagtail.

^Above^ - Starlings (with Goldfinches, bottom pic)

^Above^ - Goldfinches.

^Above^ - Redpoll.

^Above^ - Starling.

^Above^ - Great Tit.

^Above^ - Blue Tit.

^Above^ - Female Chaffinch.

^Above^ - Dunnock.

^Above^ - Great Spotted Woodpecker.

^Above^ - Male and female Reed Buntings.

^Above^ - Redwing.

^Above^ - Backlit reeds.

That's all for now, thank you for looking!

You can 'like' my Facebook nature page here;

https://www.facebook.com/CarlBovisNaturePhotography

You can follow my Twitter nature page here;

https://twitter.com/CarlBovisNature

If I don't post again, I hope all my readers have a very merry Christmas and a wonderful New Year! :)