Pied Wagtail

The weather forecast was for a bright sunny but cold morning (frost overnight) with possible Wintery showers later.

We never saw any sunshine but it wasn't too cold so we decided on a walk to see the farmland birds around Swineshaw reservoir.  There were Oystercatchers and Lapwings with Curlew calling plus ducks and crows and Meadow Pipits and 3 Pied Wagtails - one in my photo.

Then it snowed, we had seen snow lying on the hills to the North but we seem to be  a sheltered spot until we turned for home.  It snowed all the way. Extra Photo shows the snow shower.

In the afternoon we kept warm by the fire and watched The Blue Lamp on Talking Pictures TV.  Of course we had seen it before but it is wonderful cinema.

Later we heard that we would have probably have seen Golden Plover as well if we had taken a different route.  I am currently finding it interesting hearing about birds that other people are seeing on a WhatsApp group - I had never used WhatsApp before and it is a mixed blessing. It's the electronic version of the birder you meet that says if only you were here yesterday or 5 minutes ago you would have seen ....
But actually it's a little worse than that because I also get to hear about what I would have seen if I had just visited a day later or stayed out for an hour longer.  Yes a mixed blessing BUT I am happy the birds are arriving for the Spring and I will probably see then one sunny day.