After a week of windy, and at times very wet, weather, it's been lovely to enjoy a couple of proper winter days: cold, clear and icy with crisp blue skies and very little wind.
Of course, there is a downside to such lovely weather: you really do need to wear lots of layers and keep moving. In fact, you may wish to wear wellington boots too, as some of the paths are bit wet, with Sluice completely impassable on foot due to deep flooding in places.
Another downside is that most of the Scrape and reedbed pools are frozen, although this means that wildlife clusters into the patches of open water.
If you are lucky, these patches will be close to the hide, such as this one alongside East Hide. However, you may to visit this hide early as by the time I got there today I was looking straight into the sun, making identifying the ducks a bit more of a challenge.
This is where experience can certainly help, with the slim bodies, shaggy crests and narrow pointed bill helping me to identify these as three female goosanders.
The light was only marginally better for this male goosander too, allowing me to see the white breast and flanks contrasting with darker upperparts and the more rounded head profile.
This particular pool has a bit of black and white theme going on, with this shelduck (above) and shoveler (below) accompanying the goosanders.
When I moved to the Public Viewpoint, the light was much better but the ducks were a bit more distant.
Elsewhere on the Scrape, Levels and Konik Field you can still see large flocks of wigeon, gadwall, mallard, teal , lapwing and a variety of gulls. The latter usually include one or two yellow-legged or Caspian gulls, while a glaucous gull was a brief visitor for one day only. The two wintering avocets appear to moved elsewhere with the frost, but two whooper swans remain and a great white egret is being seen occasionally.
In the reedbed, the star attractions are the marsh harriers, with an incredible count of 46 coming to roost at the weekend. Bittern Hide is the place to be in late afternoon to witness this spectacle. From there or Island Mere you may also spot a bittern, water rail, bearded tit or kingfisher, or perhaps even an otter, while I watch a lovely kingfisher flying across the North Wall this afternoon. Elsewhere in the reedbed you might spot the fabulous amphibious reed cutting machine, known as a Truxor, which will be opening up various reedbed pools over the next few weeks.
Male marsh harrier by Steve Everett
Bittern Hide is also proving to be a good place to look for bullfinches, which have also been showing well at times in North Bushes and around the car park entrance. Firecrests have been spotted in the North Bushes and Rhododendron Tunnel areas this week, with the latter also being a good location for seeing siskins. Elsewhere in the woods, looks for flocks of tits, which may include goldcrests or treecreepers, and perhaps a great spotted woodpecker. The latter are also regular around the feeders, as are nuthatches and marsh tits.
Finally, returning to the theme of ice, regular readers will know that I can't resist taking pictures of icy landscapes and frozen puddles, and this one in the dunes really caught my attention today.
What will we see this week? Will the cold weather bring in any more winter swans or thrushes, or perhaps even a waxwing or two?