I went to visit my sister Anne at her new house in Bedfordshire - or is it Bucks ? the exact location was a little confusing- a Beds' postal address but a Bucks' council address, so on the county border. We went for a walk around Tring Reserviors (in Herts !) at midday. The first reservoir (Startops End) had quite a few birds and was the only one of the three together that wasn't completely frozen. Tufted Duck, Pochard, Shoveler, Teal, Gadwall, Great Crested Grebe and lots of Coot were joined by a single Red-Crested Pochard and a Goldeneye. The hawthorns at the edge of the canal held large numbers of Fieldfares and Redwings and still had a healthy crop of berries so i imagine these thrushes might be around for a while. Walking around the canal footpath a Water Rail crept up the weedy bank and a couple of Long-tailed tit flocks gave close views as did a male Sparrowhawk which perched briefly. I had seen a few Red Kites on the journey to Anne's and a couple more were quartering the reservoirs After a healthy walk round on icy paths, including a hot flask and a sandwich ( Anne's much more organised than me !) , we moved onto Wilstone Reservoir where the water level was very low and still quite iced, I had been here in the Summer to see a Red-footed Falcon so the scenery was quite different. Larger numbers of ducks were present with lots of Wigeon and a couple of Pintail, a Kingfisher gave good views at the edge of the reservoir wall and a Grey Wagtail and Water Pipit were seen on the edge of the water. A very pleasant aternoon .
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