Water Vole at the London Wetlands Centre

I spent today at the inaugural London Wild Bird Watch, at the London Wetlands Centre, Barnes.  To start things off, I enjoyed listening to Simon King talk about the live webcams on two Peregrine Falcons in West London.

I then had the chance to listen to a few wildlife photographers - Ben Osborne, Jules Cox and Luke Massey, courtesy of Amateur Photographer Magazine.

As birds were meant to be the focus for the day, here's a Goldcrest (Regulus regulus), showing clearly where its name comes from (click to zoom in):

I also wanted to try to photograph a water vole (Arvicola amphibius) - a mammal I remember seeing as a kid, but not one I've ever been able to photograph.  Despite some pretty heavy rain later on in the afternoon, I managed to take a few photographs I am relatively happy with, given the conditions (click on photos to see larger).