The weatherman forecast a break in the heavy rain and possibly some sun for late morning so I took a risk and went off to Chard reservoir hoping to find the firecrest near the hide.  It always makes me a bit nervous going out in the rain with my current camera, the Canon 7D as it's not supposed to be as waterproof as the pro series camera that I was using before.  As it was still raining pretty hard when I arrived I improvised a rainshield so ended up setting off clad in waterproof camo trousers, waterproof camo jacket, green wide-brimmed hat, part camouflaged tripod, 500mm lens with camo coat and... a bright orange Sainsbury's carrier bag wrapped about the camera!

Feeling a bit of a chump - not unusual - I set off for the woods near the hide.  The firecrest appeared to have been in much the same area for a few weeks, to the left of the duck feeding area near the hide.  No sign at first when I arrived so I made for the hide itself only to find a small bird, either a goldcrest or a firecrest, flitting around in a tree that overhung the path that leads the last few yards to the hide.  At that point, I regretted not bringing a candle as it was so dark I could hardly make it out.  I managed a few pictures which confirmed a small bird with a stripe on its head but little else.  It moved on and I lost sight of it for some time.

One nice things about this patch of woodland is that people regularly put out bird seed in various places, on stumps and in feeders.  The woodland is actively managed to keep it failry clear and there are a number of nest boxes in the trees.  The result is a healthy population of woodland birds which are also well aclimatised to people who follow the path that winds bewteen the trees.  While I waited to see if the 'firecrest' would appear again, I had some fun photographing tits that were flitting on and off a tree stump.  I was interested to see that it was the blue tits that were most hesitant to feed with me nearby while the long-tailed, marsh and great tits were pretty tame.  Coal tits seemed in short supply today although they were present.

A quick trip to the hide showed that the ice from the recent big freeze had gone and there were few birds about on the reservoir, at least few in range of my unassisted vision and lens.

Back out again and I was able to watch the small 'crest' at a distance but did little better in identifying it.  I've put a couple of poor shots on this page in case someone wants to have a stab at saying which it is.  I'm not much of a birder really but it looks like a goldcrest to me.

Another bird much in evidence today was the jay, both in the woods and feeding in the fields.  Very shy as ever, close shots weren't a possiblity today.  I would imagine that waiting patiently near one of the feeding stations and putting out loads of peanuts would be the way to get some shots but I didn't have time, peanuts or the light.

Just as I arrived at the car park I saw a female bullfinch feeding on seed heads.  This was significantly smaller than the male I photographed at Hankridge last week .  Pictures here.