The sun was out this morning... and so were a couple of Bullfinches...

while this Reed Bunting is beautifully camouflaged in the reeds...

A Lesser Redpoll was spotted out in the sunshine again...

As were the Stonechats...

And the ducks were enjoying the ditches... but keeping an eye out...

Ahh a New Year and the pools and ditches are brimming over...

a moorhen is startled and dashes for cover...

the starlings are starting to gather for another ariel display....

and a male bullfinch is feasting on buds...

Winter sights ...

   A Dunnock...

Reed clearing...

A mushroom ...

Today three Lesser Redpolls were together enjoying the grass heads by the back hedge....

frost was slowly melting on the rose hips...

and it was feeling wintery...

A Lesser Redpoll spotted by the back hedge today...

Clouds scud across the sky, sheep now trample the meadow edges,
and the Stonechats enjoy the spoils...

A Painted Lady on the path today....

Goldfinches having a chat...

Many of the birds are loving the fruitful hedgerows including this Starling....

And other animals too!....

A baby Newt crosses the path, looking for a winter home in the undergrowth....

while a Buzzard soars above....

Meanwhile the Stonechat seems to have settled with us...

As the mist lies in the dusk on the meadow, a heron gulps down a large fish, a bat swoops above and a newt makes his way across the path into the safety of the long grass.  A fox hears children and makes a dash from his hiding place in the reeds and out across the scrape into the gathering gloom.

... But by morning the world is transformed by sunshine and the long tailed tits bob down the hedge, chattering to the blue tits as they go...

Oooo, a new screen for bird watching!

and through the bird screen was spotted... a newly arrived Stonechat...

meanwhile, on a sunny branch, a Migrant Hawker Dragonfly takes a rest...

Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness ...

Black-tailed Skimmer dragonfly on the path...

A black-tailed godwit seen on the pool today...

A Green-veined White...

another busy pollinator...

some Woundwort...

and young pike lurking in the pool...

And beautiful butterflies, enjoying the thistles....

a Small Copper...

a Gatekeeper...

a Meadow Brown...

a Comma...

and a Small Tortoiseshell...