Orrell Water Park ... Again!

It's not long since I'd been to Orrell Water Park to see the Mandarin Duck and Cormorant but I just had to go back to get the only view of a Waxwing that I'm likely to see this winter.  This solitary bird had been regularly in Pete Alker's garden next to the park over the last couple of weeks and so with a good chance of seeing I decided on a quick visit today.

In the Water Park itself I spotted my first Great Crested Grebes of the year, one starting to build a nest.

 

A Song Thrush landed right next to me as I was looking at the Grebe and it pulled a long worm out of the grass before flying off.

After failing to find the Mandarin Duck on the water, I decided to have a quick look at the feeding station:

I tried a few experimental shots of capturing birds hovering around the feeders, but the light was poor and I had to ramp the ISO up to 4000 just to get a half-decent shutter speed for these shots.