I was back in the UK last weekend and had a beautiful but frosty day around Rutland Water. The lagoons had all frozen over and it was funny to see groups of Redwing slipping and sliding around on the ice as they searched for food amongst the emergent reeds. A Long-tailed Tit also dropped down onto the ice to collect some fallen bullrush seeds and a fox was trotting around the lagoons, flushing two Snipe, which would otherwise have remained hidden. The waterbirds were all concentrated on the main reservoir and one bay in particular held a very tightly packed group of Coot, Gadwall, Tufted Duck and a few Goldeneye.
Since the water here was too deep for the Gadwalls to feed, they would wait for a Coot to come up from a dive with a beakful of weed and then snatch it off them! I almost walked straight past this male Bullfinch quietly munching on some old brambles.
The last hide I visited had lots of Teal feeding at point-blank range plus two Red-crested Pochard, which are, or at least used to be, rare in the UK.
