6^th December. With good winter weather forecast, I jumped in the car and headed across the Severn to Frampton again to hopefully pick up a new species. After a frosty walk around most of Court Lake and having seen plenty of nice things like Treecreeper, Goldcrest, Siskin, Green Woodpecker, Gadwall and Shoveler but photographed nothing due to either bad luck or difficult lighting I was getting a "one of those days" feelings! I then bumped into a large party of birders who were also looking for the Lesser Scaup which had been seen on the lake but after 5 minutes searching, they also came up empty handed. One eagle eyed birder amongst them did manage to identify a drake Red-Crested Pochard so I slipped away from the group and walked to a better position for lighting to get a few shots. Not the new duck I was hoping for but another nice tick for the website. I guessed at this point the Scaup wasn't going to show so headed south to Slimbridge to hopefully find some White Fronted Geese. On the fields before the car park around thirty Bewick's Swans were grazing on the Northern side of the road while a mixed flock of Dunlin, Golden Plover and Lapwing were feeding to the South. I headed towards the Holden tower calling in at the hides along the way and hoped to see the Water Rail under the feeders. The Rail wasn't there, only several chubby Moorhens and a small group of Chaffinches, Blue Tits and Great Tits but a single winter Chiffchaff was a nice find. A large group of grazing Wigeon proved a challenge in the bright sunlight and much easier were Tufted Duck, Pochard, Shoveler, Mallard, Gadwall, Teal and Greylag Geese from the north facing hides. Only a Buzzard perched whilst looking into the sun and another large collection of Wigeon were of note from the Holden tower with no White Fronts to be seen. I headed back to the hides overlooking the feeding Pool where a small group of Pintail looked stunning in the perfect lighting conditions. I then headed over to the Zeiss hide on the off chance of seeing the Bittern. No one had seen it all day and it was packed in there with only a brief view of 3 distant Snipe through a scope so I soon moved on to the new Kingfisher Hide, which although very swish I found a little disappointing with the birds seemingly further away than before. A Robin posed beautifully outside the South Finger hides on my way back and a Jackdaw and Grey Heron did likewise whilst walking through the enclosures. I had a quick hopeful look for the Water Rail again but was quickly distracted by the sound and then sight of a flitty Goldcrest which I managed to get a couple of decent shots. I grabbed a few more Wigeon and Mallard shots making use of the dipping sun but time was marching on. I stopped on the road leaving Slimbridge to take a few more shots of the Bewick's Swans and also a nice Rook feeding in the fields. It was then south via Aust Warth, hoping to catch the male Merlin seen regularly there. Again, the Merlin wasn't anywhere to be seen but there were up to 3 Short Eared Owls in the air at one time hunting over the salt marsh. It was wonderful to see their butterfly like flight in clear conditions and two of them even talon grappled and hissed at each other. Whilst waiting for another owl flight a female Kestrel flew past and I clicked away hoping that it would miraculously turn into a Merlin! Still it provided some great images and ended a really good days birding.