Back to work Monday after the long break so decided to stay local, well in our home County anyway. Rob and I travelled across the county to Dawlish Warren to photograph the Black-necked grebe that's been around for some time now. On arrival we noticed a few birdwatchers looking but only reports of brief glimpses of the bird, the light as  usual was rubbish and we did manage to locate the bird but it was at such a distance a photo was totally out of the question. We stood around hoping it may come closer when a woman kindly shouted to us that she had heard a Bearded tit in the reeds, we went over to see and to our surprise the bird made a few brief appearances and for a second or two was not obscured by branches or reeds (at least not to Rob's lens, all I could see was half the bird).

We left Dawlish and headed for Topsham where two or three Bramblings have also been showing well for some time now. Once again the light was rubbish, a thing I am beginning to expect and the birds did show but again in trees where they were difficult to get a shot of them in the open. We persevered and did manage a few shots with not too much in the way of distractions before we left so not a total disaster.Brambling