Thanks to volunteer Gary for his report and photos.

A very frosty, still and sunny start to the day, but becoming cloudy later. Once again, the trees on the left side of the zigzag path had a large flock of goldfinches and three bullfinches, and further down a group of reed buntings were posing in the sunshine flicking their tails to attract attention. I looked in vain for the little owl, but it was seen by others later (you know who you are!!). At first, the pool at Winpenny was frozen and rather lifeless but as it thawed first pied wagtails and then meadow pipits began to appear and a pair of stonechats put on a display right in front of the hide.

Two sneaky snipe emerged from the grass where they had been hiding, and further out the female marsh harrier put on a display. At one stage the cattle spooked a snipe that came straight at me - I thought that it was going to come through the window into the hide.

On adder alley a chiffchaff was with a mixed flock of tits and goldcrests, and on the north brooks the peregrine was waiting patiently before having an unsuccessful go at some teal; but boy was it close. Buzzards, kestrels and a sparrowhawk all did their best to keep the ducks on their toes and eleven white-fronted geese could also be picked out in the throngs of canada and greylag geese. A single black-tailed godwit put in a very brief appearance in front of jupps view before being scared off by a pass from what was possibly another peregrine.

By way of a bonus to finish the day, a beautiful little firecrest was flitting around the bushes on the approach to the visitor centre.