Surprise Visitor

Just a brief late day mini blog.  No, the picture is not one I took - still haven't mastered the adding pictures from my camera technique - just a particularly accurate one of what i have just spent five transfixed minutes staring at.
How's that for a badly constructed sentence?

Have I mentioned that one of my nerdier hobbies is garden bird watching?
Yes, I thought so.  Nevertheless, I reiterate being a member of the BTO garden bird-watch scheme is part of my day-to-day routine, and has been for about ten or twelve years.

Most of the time a casual glance out of the window is rewarded by half a million starlings, slightly fewer house-sparrows a few tits and finches blackbirds and the odd robin and blackbird.  Every now and then however, my vigilance is rewarded by the sighting of something much rarer.

For the afficionados among  you (or fellow bird-nerds), this has included over recent years, a pea-hen,
a male pheasant, several reed-buntings (now a regular winter visitor), a greater spotted woodpecker - yesterday - a jay and today for the first time ever a beautifull male bullfinch.

Crows, jackdaws and red kites pale into insignificance by comparison with this bright little fellow.

I would add, my garden is tiny and an urban one, not a half acre rural one so this is a real cause celebre.

Forgive my enthusiasm, but my day has been a dull one filled with dreary household chores and this has brightened my spirits beyond belief.

Sad, I know, and i don't expect a cure any time soon.