En route, a couple of perched buzzards were seen on the A41, as the fog thickened. I started at Marsworth, where unfortunately the bittern I saw earlier in the week chose to remain hidden. However, I soon started picking up new birds for my year list - wigeon, little egret & a drumming great spotted woodpecker.
As visibility reduced even more dramatically, I decided to walk up the Grand Union Canal, and was soon enjoying a pair of bullfinches. Further along the path, song thrush was also new for the year. I then found in quick succession another two pairs of bullfinches - one behind Tringford and the other on the dry canal. There also seemed to be a lot more redwings around today compared with earlier in the week.
I made my way to Wilstone Reservoir, adding greenfinch & dunnock to my year list. Visibility from the hide wasn't great, but I soon added common gull, lesser black backed gull, greylag goose & shoveller. A sparrowhawk put up all of the teal & wigeon. From the jetty, I saw a lovely male goldeneye.
Back to Tringford, where I enjoyed a small flock of long tailed tits, before getting the most fleeting of glances at a kingfisher. There were also a number of pairs of red crested pochard.
By now, I was frozen, so a quick spring around Startops, added a few species to the day list before I called it a day and, given the conditions, a respectable final total of 51 species (65 for the year)
I also had my camera with me, so here's a selection of pictures from the day:
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