Brandon Marsh.

After doing some early morning shopping I went over to Brandon Marsh on Tuesday morning despite the poor weather to try and see the Short Eared Owl (never seen one) and the Hen Harrier (seen one but no decent pics) recently reported there.

Got there just before 10.00AM and headed past the wind pump to the sheep field in very dull weather.I hadn't gone very far past the wind pump when I saw a raptor flying around in the distance.The Hen Harrier????

Having learned the lesson years ago you don't check out a bird first you rattle off as many shots as you can then check later.When the bird flew off I checked out how good my shots of the Hen Harrier were.It was a Sparrowhawk !!!! Bugger Bugger!!!!

After that excitement I checked out the sheepfield and the Newlands for my target birds but saw nothing at all.I then joined some friends in the Carlton hide and they had had no luck either.A stay of well over an hour in that hide and not one of us had cause to use our cameras.It was dead.We did find out later that the SEO was seen over the Newlands.

Off to the cafe for a cup of tea where as usual the pretty waitress cheered me up and took my mind off my lack of shots.Thinking about it she looked so nice I've had to upgrade her from "pretty" to "very attractive".

As we were enjoying our tea we spotted a couple of Nuthatches on the feeders out side the cafe and we could not resist trying to get some shots even though they had to be taken through the window glass.The shots were a bit washed out but were all I could manage on a poor day with the camera.

A week ago I set up a feeder station in my garden based on a mini version of the one at Whitacre Heath (a very mini one!!!).To date as far as I know no birds had paid it a visit but this morning a Coal Tit had a brief look but soon flew off unimpressed so my plans to get some great winter bird shots are not looking good at the moment.