The Golden Crested Wren, or as we now know them, Gold Crests

Today I took a stroll in Railway Land nature reserve, Lewes to peek at the gold crest's. These delightful little birds are residents here but being so small, the smallest in the UK, they can easily be missed and it takes a while to tune in to there faint calls too. Most folk will tell you they nest high up in pine trees, way out of sight, which they will do, but they are equally happy to nest sometimes as low as a metre from the ground in a quiet woodland. In Railway the lowest nest I've seen was 2 metres from the ground right next to the footpath from Lieghside pond to the Linklater pavilion, as this photo below will show.

This tiny nest, not much bigger than an egg cup, has been used and the young flown in April.

I deliberately didn't go anywhere near it until that time and actually took this photo from about 60 metres away with a telephoto lens. A long lens is absolutely vital to get good shots of these birds and I use 300mm to 600mm with my Nikon P1000.

Note the ivy leaves next to the nest by the way, the site of choice for Gold crests in Railway Land!

One of the things I love to see it the way gold crests hunt insects. In particular during drizzle and light rain the insects hide under leaves to avoid being washed away and the bir gaze up for them.

This one overhanging the Winterbourne stream.

It doesn't get much more adorable than this; searching for insects, this youngster became transfixed with the yellow leaf, presumably due to it's likeness to it's parent's crests?

Don't be fooled though, the males can be fierce fighters if another male fancies his wife.

take a look at this one and take a walk in Railway Land with eyes wide open.

"Don't just look at things, 'see' them"