Lesser Redpoll #50

The weather was much better than we anticipated so we made an earlyish  start(for us anyway!) by going into Grange to post a birthday card and then we spent a couple of hours walking along the promenade and checking out the ornamental gardens which held some nice specimens of ducks and geese(extras). 
We decided to push our luck and visit Foulshaw Moss Nature Reserve before heading back to our base. This is one of the reserves around the country that has breeding ospreys. This is the pairs ninth year apparently and they are sitting on three eggs due to hatch in less than three weeks. Unfortunately they are VERY far away and all we saw was the head of the female as a white speck in our binoculars! But there were plenty of other species about - redpoll and Siskin - a first for the year for us, tree sparrows, finches and great spotted woodpeckers at the feeders and then swallows, Martin’s and plenty of warblers making a racket across the Moss. It then started to rain so we hot-footed it back to the car. I like this little reserve better in the summer as it is host to loads of dragonflies as well as all the birds. 
After lunch there was a tiny break in the rain so I headed out to try and get a shot of the blackcaps, but instead came across this handsome beast in extras. It’s been a good day :)