Coal Tit

A very cold but bright sunny and crisp day today.  I headed back to Chasewater to see if the Great Northern Diver was still about.  As soon as I parked the car I could tell that it was there as there was a line of tripods along the dam!  I had many sightings of it again but it was even more difficult to photograph. It was diving and remaining submerged for what seemed like a long time eventually reappearing a long way away from where it had dived.  Each time it was spotted back on the surface there were only a few seconds before it dived again.  The best I managed was a picture of a few tail feathers and a bit of a splash!  Eventually I gave up as my fingers were very cold but also because a speedboat had started charging round the reservoir scaring everything away.  I next drove over to Wolseley Bridge and spent a little while in the bird hide.  It seemed much warmer there as it was more sheltered than standing atop the dam but the lake was covered with a layer of ice.