In need of some serious chill time – what better place to head than Chew Valley Lakes & the picnic site? Today it’s quiet, in the distance the echoes of aircraft at Bristol airport. Strangely there’s no sound of waterfowl where we are, but plenty of tuneful singing from other birds around the lakeside.

As I sat watching, reeds by the lake were swaying, not just from the gentle breeze. A bird was just visible, clinging to the fluffy reed head. Time I searched for the binoculars it had gone. Look again & he was back, singing. Now  it wasn’t a very tuneful song, staccato best describes his style.. It reminded me a little of morse code! My little bird seemed to be playing a game, dancing through the reeds in my line of vision, taunting, just a glimpse, not lingering to let me gain a closer look. Then as if by magic he sat still, singing once more, before flying down to the ground near me, allowing me to see the beautiful markings on his feathers. His colouring was sparrow like, but close to his wing feathers appeared burnished bronze, vibrant in the sunlight.

I am really chuffed with this photo, the best of around a dozen I shot haphazardly, in the hope of getting something worth saving.  My star bird is a Reed Bunting, now if I only had my I Spy book of Birds to hand I guess I’d have scored a few points today!