20 November 2014: Donna Nook Nature Reserve, Lincolnshire.

My wife and I visited Donna Nook to see the Grey Seal colony again this year. We were blessed with another fine day and we got ther nice and early, while there were still very few people about. That gave me the opportunity to catch a few hedgerow birds before the crowds drove them further back out of site.

Mother and pup doing what clearly looks like playing.

Female Reed Bunting

I would never have expected to get my first Goldcrest of the year at the seaside(-:).

Yellowhammer

One of the newborns

Snoozing

Mother encouraging her pup to feed - amazing how delicate they can be with hose flippers which have quite long claws.

Knot?

Chinook ove rthe bombing range.

Crow eating afterbirth, which almost fooled me into thinking it was a Chough.

Greater Black Backed Gull

Turnstone

Magpie

Knot? and Redshank

Skylark

Brent Geese

Lapwing

Bull checking whether this female was ready for mating.

Shelduck

Lapwing

Greater Black Backed Gull

Brent Geese

Magpie dining

Dunnock

Chinook over the bombing range.

Flock of Starling

Ropeneck - so called becasue when she arrived a few years ago there was a rope caught around her neck and she had to be freed.

Pied Wagtail

Even more Brent Geese

Only a loving mother would be suckled by a child with teeth like those.

Snoozing mum

Flipper and claw detail

Bull keeping a watch on the women.

Pup dreaming of lots of Salmon

More encouragement to feed.

A beautiful flock of Goldfinch, the first time I have ever managed to catch aflock of these in flight so well.

Fight time for thes e two males though it was a bit half hearted and didn't last long - perhaps they were just a bit too close rather than fighting over a woman!

Not quite at Donna Nook, but we called in at Mablethorpe down the coast and had a stroll on the beach where we found thes gorgeous Sanderling.