Just another day in the cold north-east!

At Fairburn Ings, Pickup Hide, a great spotted woodpecker came along to entertain me...

Great Spotted Woodpecker Heavily cropped and re-angled to cut away a plastic feeder. I don't like feeder shots so the following are preferred and show the bird's charisma, I think.

Great Spotted Woodpecker Great Spotted Woodpecker My favorite!

Great Spotted Woodpecker Funnily enough I saw my second GSW of the year later the same day at Old Moor. Back to Fairburn for now: other birds graced the Pickup hide area including a singing blue tit, who gave me a very careful examination.

Blue Tit Blue Tit And then he sang for me!

Blue Tit

Tree sparrows looked well in the light created by the icy conditions.

Tree Sparrow Tree Sparrow En route to Old Moor and Pugney's I saw lots of partridge coveys. Otherwise I drew a blank everywhere except for linnets at Old Moor. The pugney's smew had vanished again. Typical smew behaviour!!  All the partridge were red-legged.

Red-legged Partridge