The Bearded Lady

No not a screen grab from The Greatest Showman on Earth but a sighting of the female Bearded Tit at Upton Warren. I've never been fortunate enough to see one before so was super excited to know it was there.

My plans for the day had gone very awry so it was a last minute decision to head there late this afternoon.

I say 'sighting' loosely as the guy in the hide with a powerful scope reckoned it would be very difficult to spot with bins because of the distance. Yes it was miles away and in all honesty I couldn't see at all what I'd got down the lens. A flicker the size of a pin head about sums it up as it flitted over the bullrushes and I was completely reliant on 'scope guy' giving a running commentary as to it's whereabouts knowing I would have to massively blow the pics up on the computer.

There was a dark moment in the hide followed by relieved laughter when a sparrow hawk tried to take it out a couple of times which would have been catastrophic for this infamous little bird.