Out with the camera in the freezing cold.

On Monday morning I was very brave and went out in the bitter cold to Brandon Marsh.I very wisely had put on loads of layers but I soon found it was a bit of a struggle to walk around and don't ask me how long it took to answer a call of nature.

After an hour walking around I'd not used the camera at all but did spot 5 Common Buzzards high above the path from the west marsh to the river hide.Too high for a decent shot but nice to see something.

Most of the ponds were frozen up so there was very little around but a female Bullfinch briefly paid a visit to bushes to the left of the Carlton hide.

After a long walk past the Newlands and the sheep field produced no birds at all I gave up and went home.

After some early morning shopping on Tuesday morning I nipped over to Marsh Lane.If anything it was even colder probably because the sun was very hazy.It didn't take long for my thermals to be penetrated so it was going to be a short visit.

The car park pools was iced up and there were no birds at all in view.The railway pool did have some open water but I couldn't spot anything unusual on show.About a dozen Golden Plovers landed on one of the islands but stayed for one second before flying off.

The channel in the marsh did have some running water and a lone Common Snipe was feeding there so I was able to get some shots.

By now I was frozen solid and had to race home before frostbite set in.