Snails for breakfast

It was - 6C when I came to scrape the ice off  the car this morning before setting off for the Somerset Levels.  I had originally planned to go to Radipole near Weymouth, as it sounded as though others had seen bearded tits there.  But when I looked at the weather forecast it suggested that it could be quite breezy.  Bearded tits don't tend to show well when its windy, and given the air temperature less wind would make for a more enjoyable experience for the photographer :-)

So I headed off for a frozen Westhay on the levels instead.  The last few times I have been to Westhay there has been no sign of the bearded tits that I had seen there in the early Autumn.  But to my very pleasant surprise I found about half a dozen during the day. 

In the warmer months bearded tits have a diet of insects but in the colder months they move to eating seeds, which they need to supplement with grit for digestive purposes.  But today's birds were hunting tiny snails.  In the main the snails were to be found inside the stems of the reeds and the birds had to break open the reeds to get at them.  I've given you both male and female (see extras).  The male was on the boardwalk so I had to get a bit mucky to be low enough for eye level.  The extra is more of an action shot as the bird has literally just pulled the snail from inside the reed.