Meatloaf got it right

Two out of three ain't bad.  Weather that is for two of the first three days of February.  And as a Brucie Bonus I saw and photographed for the first time this little chap, a goldcrest (again, click on the images for full size)

As I set off I saw a couple of tiny birds flitting around in a bramble bush.  They were wren-sized but clearly not, if for no other reason than they weren't screeching at me with tails at ten. Instead they were fluffed up hopping about minding their own business, busying themselves with keeping warm.  I just stood and waited for a window.  This was the only shot I got so I'm quite pleased I could id it.

It was one of those East Anglian big sky mornings, the sort that non-Anglians don't understand when you try to explain the concept of 'big sky'.  The sunrise was pale washed in cold water with pastel orange and pink streaks. As I drove towards Fynn Valley I thought I ought to pull over in that lay by, then when I got to the top of America Hill in Witnesham, then at Ashobocking, then....you get the idea: I didn't stop and take a photo.  doh.

At the fen the gates were locked (again).  I chatted to the assistant warden the other morning and he told me kids had been messing about overnight, so they had to lock up even thought they hated doing it.  It added up now why I'd found an empty can of stella down by the Waveney.  Beats me why you'd walk half a mile to sit in the middle of a nature reserve in the freezing cold at night. Clearly I missed out as a child.

Anyway it was another properly cold morning, so that the metal gates were frozen to the wooden posts.  Crunchy underfoot so no good for creeping up on things.  In the woods on the way towards the far end of the reserve I stopped at the kissing gate as a flock of long tails skipped through the trees above me.  Then, in pretty much the same place I'd seen it the first time, a little brown treecreeper shimmied round the trunk of an oak tree in front of me.  This time I managed to at least get a vaguely stationary shot so you can see it's a treecreeper, but all the same I can see this is going to be my nemesis

Sorry about the bright white background, it nearly blew out on me as i was down to 1/30th at ISO 800.  Eeesh.

The light was crisp and clear so I stopped by the reedbeds on the way in, thinking (hoping?) I'd heard bearded tits.  No joy though, so back to the car.

At lunch I went back to the 100th BG hare field.  Five of them in the arable field but just sat hunkered down in the sun looking like, well, hunkered down hares in a field.  I drove on, aiming to get lost and see what I'd find.  Towards Thelverton I noticed what looked like a rook but it was the wrong shape, poised on the ground at the edge of an arable field. Hang on isn't that a?  Turn car round, sidle up to a gap in the hedge but whoosh whoosh whoosh it takes off.  A buzzard, keeaw-ing as it went.  Who'd have thought.

So no hares but a good day to be alive.  Gotta love the great outdoors.