Bearded Gems

Having visited Leighton Moss once this Autumn and failed to even see Bearded Tits I could not resist another go in the quest to film a bird I have never filmed before and only seen once. Conditions were perfect but after standing around for two hours I was already expecting another blank day. However, calls in the reeds meant a party were about to grit in the trays erected especially for them. Within a minute they appeared out of the reeds and presented  quite  a challenge to capture shots as they darted backwards and forwards on and off the trays. There are so few of them at Leighton Moss that most birds have been individually marked with colour rings to enable visual identification through binoculars. The birds take their name from the facial markings that the males possess and I managed to film one without rings in full sunshine which now highlights this week’s blog .  Click here

In the garden this week the female Great Spotted Woodpecker has been feeding daily. Better still was a brief visit on the feeders on the 23rd of a male Brambling, the first we have seen in the garden for a few years