I visited a very busy Attenborough Nature Reserve today. The sky was lovely and sunny, and it had brought out the visitors in droves. It was quite tricky to even find a parking space in the (usually spacious) car park, but it was pleasing that so many people were out and about enjoying the reserve.

First up I made a brief visit to the Kingfisher Hide, where I watched a few Tufted Ducks mooching about in the shallows just in front of me. Thereafter, I moved to the elevated tower hide, where I had seen a Water Rail on my previous visit, to wait for a Bittern to present itself to my camera. But alas, it wasn’t to be; (no) business as usual in the Bittern department! One day….

I did get a few nice shots of a passing Heron, and a rather cheeky Blue Tit perched itself at the top of the tree just a few feet from my high vantage point. The light on it was very nice, as you can see from the photo above. It was interesting to note that a number of the birds flying past, including the Heron, were carrying nesting material. Spring here we come!

On the way back up the path to the car park, I stopped by the lakeside to photograph a collection of birds including an Egyptian Goose, some dapper-looking Tufted Ducks, and a Black-Headed Gull which was well on its way to having its Summer-plumage black head again.

Even the Feral Pigeons were looking well with the afternoon sun on them!