Dodging the rain at Warnham LNR and WWT Arundel

The forecast promised sunshine.. so I headed off to Warnham in hope of seeing lesser & mealy Redpolls.  It was very waterlogged.. coming round the corning to the board walk I was glad to have wellies on... shoes would have disappeared below the water line!

Was entertained by the usual culprits although not that many of anything.  About 4 Long-tailed tits were on the fat feeder...

Various finches - mostly Goldfinches and Chaffinches were on the ground feeding.

Just the one squirrel..

The a Great Spotted Woodie joined the party... they do love the fat feeder!!

and by now the sun went in replaced with black sky and heavy rain!! which rather dampened the woodie's feathers!

Blue & great tits were about and I did see, briefly, a Nuthatch..

Finally the rain eased for a bit and I headed off... planning to go to Petworth!!

A few snowdrops on the way to the car park.

Along the road to Petworth was a considerable flood... traffic was queuing to get through - only one direction at a time.  Given the there was a huge amount of flood water either side of the road and an overflowing river... I decided that I would have to take an alternative route back - given it was only going to get worse and I didn't want to get stuck.

So - Plan B - I headed off for Arundel WWT... very little about..

A Menage a trois of Mallards.. well the temperaturs are more springlike!

Collection birds I know, but they are rather handsome!

I was going to go back to Warnham to have another look for Redpolls but on the way the skies blackened and the rain began again, so I headed off home.

Needless to say the sun came out again as soon as I got back!! C'est la Vie...