Bearded Tit

We were all up early this morning to get the kids off to Heathrow. It was horrid saying goodbye especially to the little one.

A beautiful frosty sunny day and I just couldn't decide where to go for the best. Opting to try and get a better shot of the female bearded tit I headed up to Droitwich. 

Quizzing a couple with bins who said they had been in the hide hours and not seen her I wasn't too hopeful and after a couple of hours sitting there myself I was even less so. Birders came and went then suddenly a guy with powerful scope spotted her heading in our direction. Yay!!

Got to say I was so excited seeing it flit over the bullrushes in the sunshine
and slowly but surely it did a circuit. Distant it was but the lens coped fairly well although it was tricky. 

It transpires that this breed are related to thrushes rather than the tit family which explains it's other name - the bearded reedling.