When I opened the Education Centre shutters this morning there was a young smooth newt hiding under the door, no doubt waiting to get education and enlightenment from within. As this was not the safest place for a newt to be, I moved it into the edge of the wood.
a young smooth newt waiting at the Education Centre door this morning
I saw almost all the wildlife I encountered all day in the few minutes it took me to open the hides this morning, after the newt at the Centre I saw the, or more accurately a, bittern at Ivy North hide, it was seen on and off all day.
Bittern at Ivy North hide
Walking to open Ivy South hide I had very close views of a goldcrest, sadly I did not get any good pictures of it, although I did get one that I thought interesting. It was of the bird hovering, the wings are a blur but the head is dead still. They often do this to get at insects and spiders that take refuge at the very end of leaves and twigs, out of reach of less agile predators.
hovering goldcrest
The ringers were in this morning continuing a project looking at moult in young blue tit and trying to catch wintering finches. They seemed to think there were few finches about but a visit to the Woodland hide would suggest otherwise, at least as far as numbers of goldfinch and siskin were concerned.
siskin and goldfinch at feeder beside Woodland Hide
Meanwhile the various developments continue, the new pond at the Centre is being dug, the footings of the Information Hut are in and the site of the new Tern hide is being cleared of an old concrete pad.
Blashford Lakes Nature Reserve 
The Goldcrest photo reminds me of the recent BBC post of the Kingfisher balancing on a reed as it moves in the wind…birds are fascinating…well, nature in general really 😉