I had a nice surprise yesterday.
Following a productive meeting with our friends at the BTO, four of us trekked about 200 yards through the snow to see a black-bellied dipper. The last dipper I saw was actually on Christmas Day when I was walking with the extended family through Jesmond Dene in Newcastle. But that was our resident species. The one on the doorstep of the BTO breeds in northern Europe and wanders to milder regions in winter. It pops up in the UK every now and then and was a first for me.
I'll let you guess which species is shown in Tom Marshall's image below.
We'd spent the day sharing research priorities and getting a bit of an update on BTO's much anticipated Atlas. It is a monumental piece of work and, once published, will no doubt generate countless new stories and will have major implications for future bird conservation strategy. But, we'll have to be patient and wait a little longer before we get to see it.
Later, on the train home from Thetford, we were treated to a large starling murmuration before making our way through the snowy landscape of the fens.
A good day.