Bluethroat at Willow Tree Fen LWT

For a month now, this beauty, a first-winter male Bluethroat, has been delighting birdwatchers and photographers at Willow Tree Fen, a Lincolnshire Wildlife Trust reserve between Bourne and Spalding. Initial reports of it were greeted with some incredulity, because a Bluethroat in February is a rare occurrence indeed, but it's such a confiding individual that many excellent photos of it were soon available to confirm the identity.

It's a species that breeds mainly in northern and eastern Europe, although there are now populations along the Channel coast in Holland, Belgium and France, and although some always turn up in these islands during migration periods, a February arrival is unusual. Anyway, this particular bird appears on the main path between the car-park and the visitor centre every half-hour or so, emerging from the reeds to feed for a few minutes, and he lets observers get to within a few feet.