The RSPB symbol

What a lovely start to a bank holiday weekend! Bundles of sunshine and a long walk around Burton Mere. So long that we missed lunch and had an early dinner instead :)
We headed out in search of birds and wildlife to Burton Mere, and once we got on the M56, immediately started to regret picking somewhere a bit farther away from home - the traffic was very slow for a while. Luckily it started moving properly again and we weren't delayed more than about 10-15 minutes.
Arrived to a packed car park and information that part of the path around the ponds was closed due to some white egrets on the little island that were very skittish when people got too close. So to protect their potential nest site, the RSPB had, quite rightly closed the path. a bit of a shame as the ponds are my favourite bit. But we could still see a pair of egrets, a couple of blue herons and I'm sure I saw a flash of turquoise and orange and a couple of kingfishers. My day was complete!!
We also saw some cute newly born lambs and many ducks, geese and waders, none more special than the avocets. They are so elegant and I can see why the RSPB chose them to be their symbol.
There was also a pintail duck which was generating a lot of discussion between the "real" bird watchers. I gather that they are one of the rarer breeds of duck...

I hope everyone had an equally good Friday as I think the weather is, unfortunately, going to get much worse for the rest of the weekend :(