Thursday November 22

After a hard overnight frost I resolved to have a walk around Arrow Valley Lake, unfortunately delaying my start until late morning, by which time the bright sunshine and blue sky had been replaced by mist.

In the end I only got about a quarter of the way round before a party of garrulous pensioners was the last straw (I was failing to photograph a Kingfisher at the time) and I resignedly returned to the car park.

In fact the lake did contain quite a lot of waterfowl; 17 Cormorants, 15 Shovelers, the female Goldeneye, seven Coots, numerous Black-headed Gulls and Mallard, and the first Goosander of the autumn.

Goosander

It's interesting that Little Egrets, so regular last year, seem to have vacated the area. It may simply be that I need to get up earlier or go more regularly though.

Passerines were represented by a handful of Siskins and a decent sized tit flock.