Last week's birds.

Last week's because notwithstanding the fact that the cold weather has dumped an array of supercool birds onto the island, I spent the weekend in the office. Obviously that couldn't have happened on the days it was too cold to enjoy properly. Luckily from a bird-blogging perspective, if not from a tai-haku-happiness this weekend perspective, I still have some photos from last week (when it was eyewateringly cold). The eye-watering cold is of course what has led to the array of supercool birds being here, but they were mostly hidden away or hunkered down or still on their way last weekend with some notable exceptions, one of which was this pied avocet:

I don't think I'll get bored with these, no matter how well their recovery goes, nor how common they may become. They are actually rather unusual in our part of the world notwithstanding their successes elsewhere in the British Isles.

Which made this loner a particularly welcome sight. I'd heard there was one around and been unable to locate it. I was driving home disappointed when I spotted it in a field by the road, pulled up and grabbed these shots. It was feeding heavily on whatever is in that mud. Also Note the open bill above. How cool is the upturned bill when open?

They are quite aggressive little feeders. Check out the torque being applied to whatever that is above.