Male Teal at Titchwell Marsh

Little Owl, near Ringstead, Norfolk

A cold grey day. Spent the morning looking after our toddler and in the afternoon a family visit took me along the coast road and meant that I could spend an hour at Titchwell. En route I found this Little Owl sitting amongst the Ivy cladding a roadside Oak Tree, my first of the calendar year.

It was bitterly cold at Titchwell with a north east wind and drizzle. So I prioritised my time and spent a pleasant 30 minutes on my own in Island Hide photographing Teal. Leaving aside the terrible light this was a really nice treat, usually the hides at Titchwell are pretty busy places and even when you can get onto a bird to do some photography you run the risk of someone disturbing it just enough to make photography more of a challenge. It was also great because its easy to forget what cracking little ducks Teal are, especially the males and in the flat light their feathers seem to glow.

My walk back to the car was delayed by a number of the ridiculously tame Robins that live at Titchwell and I amused myself photographing them.