BIRD NEWS:547

I next passed a pair of Nenes and a notice board. I then went into the woodland hide. I was watching what appeared to be an extra large, extra fluffy, great tit - possibly a young one - exhibit odd behaviour. It sat on the feeder nibbling at the seed between its toes - it didn't just dive in, grab and run... One of the staff members popped into the hide and asked what I had been seeing - when I mentioned the bird he mentioned a water rail in clear view right below that I had completely missed due to studying the strange youngster.

i managed to take pictures of both - but didn't know which to focus on. The water rail is a rarer sighting than a great tit - yet this tits behavior was odd. The staff member suggested it may have been taking lessons from a finch, as they are more likely to nibble their food than run off with it. It reminded me of a cockatoo or parrot though.

My attention was then taken to a coal tit - which I was unsure if I had gotten a picture of or not, as a noisy family came along and scared it away. I had also tried to get a snap of the  nuthatch....

Success with the coal tit. I then moved on, as another family approached. I got to the trumpeter swan enclosure and took a photo of a mute swan who was using their lake.