The Big Little Thaw

After being lazy this morning,just watching birds on my feeders and surrounding area and a bit of shite daytime tv through my freeview box(i really need to get sky),i mustered up the energy to go for a spot of birding around 12 0 clock across the road into my local patch the Ingrebourne Valley,scene of my last few days birding.An interesting afternoon stroll which comprised of reported deer,a couple of wierdos in the bushes,some nice birding and a wet bottom,I will come to all that as i go on with my daily report lol.
Anyway,after getting safely across the road i decided to walk down towards the river to look for Goldcrest,which i had seen Sunday,i was a bit worried about these little birds as it has been cold the last couple of nights and small birds often suffer in harsh conditions but after a minute or so i came across a large tit flock in a small oak and in with them was goldcrest,although i think it was a different individual from the other day,even if it was only a few feet from where i saw it sunday.Other birds in the tree were around 8 blue tits and at least 10 great tits,a redwing was in the tree adjacent to the small oak as was a Jay.I decided to go down to the River and as i arrived a Grey Heron took off (sorry Mr H),across from the river is some grass near a play park for kids and on the edge are some tall trees,2 Great Spotted Woodpeckers were about 20ft apart in different trees about 50ft up,i believe Tawny Owl have been heard from here,perhaps the one from last night.Back to the River,i decided to walk back up to the Hacton Lane Bridge to see if anything was around,there was 2 moorhen,a water rail and a Grey wagtail on the river.
   

After this i decided to go up to where i saw the Waxwings on Sunday,no such luck up that way so decided to head for the farmland behind it,there is an oak tree there so i set up there for a little while as it looked like it could snow,as soon as i had my scope up a flock of around 20 long tailed tits flew into the tree giving me views of the birds up to 1 metre away,they were that close,with them were around 6 blue tit and a couple of great tits,then at the top of the tree i hear Goldcrest again,but not one this time,there were two.They whizzed around the tree for around 5 minutes,obviously not bothered by me before dissapearing back into the woods.
I then realised that i had to pick the nipper up from my mums so headed off back to the house about 15-20 minutes away but the birding action wasn't over as i had a stunning male brambling and then the strangest thing happened as a middle aged bloke appeared out of the bushes doing his flies up,fine i thought,obviously been for a quick slash,but then behind him was another bloke about the same age,putting his old chap back in his trousers,these blokes are cottagers,my local patch is now a local cottaging site,no wonder they looked a bit shocked and shot back in the bushes,one of them definatly looked like Harry Redknapp lol.
Somewhat shocked i carried on back home to then be confronted by a dog walker who claimed that his boxer had just chased a muntjac into the woods,i have seen the odd one around,i then suggested that if his dog was hungry,there were a couple of benders in the woods with their tackle out.
One last bird was a cracking mistle thrush,pretty scarce compared to when i was a kid and always nice to see.One last incident was me falling in a ditch and coming out with a soaked arris which i got funny looks from the people in the pub as i walked past it.Just another quiet day on the valley.Am now at home with the Princess watching a bit of telly as mummy is out on the lash this aftenoon.More tomorrow now doubt as the days are now getting longer,happy days indeed