Friday 10th April and a couple of friends and I decided to try Thetford Forest, an area that I had not visited for a couple of years or so. Weather sunny and dry. Sunlight is not ideal in wooded areas, in my opinion due to the heavy shadows but this was not a problem at our first port of call, Santon Downham.

An open area well known for Woodlarks was our start point and it was not long before a pair made themselves known to us although always keeping their distance.

After an hour or so, we moved on to Mayday Farm, a well forested area, where there is a small trackside pool that really attracts the birds to drink with a good selection, although photography was difficult because of the shadows. Still here is a selection (after some heavy editing) of some common bathing birds.

Great Tit, Chiffchaff, Blue Tit and Coal Tit.

Siskins were very noticeable

a pair of Lesser Redpolls (sorry I am not a subscriber to the latest BTO scheme of lumping Redpolls as one species)

Even a male Brambling made a surprise visit 

but the stars of the show, although not that co-operative were a small flock of Crossbills.

After lunch, we moved on to nearby Weeting Heath where a pair of Stone Curlews could just about be seen although never close enough for a shot so we moved on to the drinking pool with not much to show for the visit as the shadows were really problematic. A Blackcap showed well

and a species that was once common in Cambridgeshire but now quite scarce mainly due to Trichomonosis but this one showed signs of Scaly Foot.

but loads of other photos suffered the delete button due to the challenging light conditions. Still, a very enjoyable day with some acceptable results.