Strumpshaw Fen: everyone enjoys an apple!

At the end of the Sandy Path at Strumpshaw is an apple tree: this has always attracted birds such as winter thrushes, Blackbirds and - a couple of years ago - Waxwings.

Today was no exception: following an early start, the only place I could actually see any birds through the dense mist at the Fen was at the apple tree. Biggest surprise (among the Fieldfares, Blackbirds, Robins, Dunnocks and Brown Rats) was a very confiding Water Rail that took a few experimental pecks at an unripened apple before stooging off under the vegetation.