A Dull Rooksbury Lunchtime - 7th Feb

I mentioned in my last post some that we were now getting some decent weather. I now retract that, this particular Thursday lunchtime was dull cold and grimy. The small lake was really quiet with only one pair of Mallard visible the usual Tufted Ducks and Little Grebes absent. 

So I wandered quicker than normal on to the big lake, this was also pretty still and quiet the only birding action in the form of the resident Cormorant out on a fishing trip. On a normal day he/she is perched at the top of one of the lakeside trees surveying his/her domain, and occasionally ventures down to fish. 

On past visits if fishing the Cormorant is quite often disturbed by passers by and is generally pretty flighty but today as I was the only one stupid enough to be out and about, I only moved when it was diving and managed to get quite close allowing some pretty poor low light shots.

On my walk back to the car I spotted another Fisherman stood patiently awaiting some prey, a Grey Heron stood in amongst the reed.

Cormorant Fishing

Harry the hungry Heron

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Sunny November Waterfowl

As well as the afore mentioned wildfowl in earlier posts, Slimbridge and its surrounding reserve where abundant in a few other Wildfowl species. 5 or 6 Shelduck joined the masses of Wigeon on the tack piece. Along with 40-50 Greylag Geese, all very vocal as Sparrowhawks and Buzzards regularly flew past.

Shelduck

Shelduck

Shelduck

Greylag

Greylag

In smaller numbers, several Grey Heron stood sentry duty on the edges of flooded outcrops, Dead still in the bright morning sun. Tufted Duck & Pochard drifted close to the hides allowing the occasional close up photograph, along with a rather tatty looking drake Shoveler.

Grey Heron

Tufted Duck

Drake Pochard

Drake Pochard

Drake Shoveler

From the Holden Tower various species could be seen on the flooded shores of the River Severn, 70 strong flocks of Dunlin fed on the flooded grassland along with Canada Geese intermixed with a lone European White-fronted Goose. A small flock of Barnacle Geese also fed along the shoreline. A much closer Barny fed inside the Slimbridge grounds, enable a photo of these chunky geese.

Barnacle Goose

Barnacle Goose

Barnacle Goose

After a quick spot of lunch, we headed around to the Zeiss hide, stopping only briefly as there were dozens of screaming kids running through the hide! Much to my annoyance, a good hour or more was spent in the Van Der Bovenkamp hide, as supposedly a Bittern was in the tiny block of reed in front of it. Its fair to say no Bittern was spotted by me, much to my annoyance. Occasionally the huge mass of Golden Plover would take flight before settling back down to feed.

Golden Plover

To finish the trip off, we thought we would go for the pair! Having managed some stunning views of the Short-billed Dowitcher down at Lodmoor in September, I thought I would get a spot on the long staying Long-billed Dowitcher that had been at Slimbridge for a good few months.

The bird was present out on the South Lake along with 50 or so Black-tailed Godwits, but with the sun dipping rapidly the whole scene was just a lot of shadowy birds so no pictures unfortunately, but good to get the set in the bag, and round off a pretty good day!

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A Dorset Bird Saturday - Sep 12

After promising myself to be more frequent in my blogs again I find myself a month behind|! Apologies to all.

Other than the Short-Billed Dowitcher Dorset didn't overly have alot to offer in the exciting bird stakes. Radipole Lakes, House Sparrow population thrives on the discarded bread that the kids chuck off the bridge for the Ducks, however getting on the right side of the light to capture a picture of the extremely close Sparrows proved a little bit of a problem, the walkways in late september as well as being adorned by the buzzing of Dragonflies were aloud with the call of Cetti's Warblers, all the way along the reed beds they could be heard although I didn't see one of the illusive little Brown Jobs.

Large skeins of Canada Geese kept coming in to land on the water around the reserve and the sounds of honks in the sky would get me looking skyward to see another skein incoming above the surrounding chimney pots.

With the path to the hide closed due to flooding we made a slow walk back to the car, pausing to watch a Mute Swan swiftly hurtle up the water to intercept an interloper.

Cormorants 

House Sparrow 

Mute Swan on Patrol

After a grabbing a quick bite to eat and a paying for an extortionate car parking ticket we headed around RSPB Lodmoor, the Car Park already delivering a couple of birds, Black-Headed Gulls swooped low looking for discarded lunch, unsuccessfully returning to the nearby telegraph poles looking for the next target. More surprisingly a couple of Carrion Crows hobbled around on the ground, youngsters I presumed, but not a bird you see up close that often as there countryside cousins are rather crafty and cautious.

All the way around the Marshy ground and scrapes of the Lodmoor reserve, Grey Herons along with the odd Little Egret poised motionless waiting for fish, a couple fairly close to the pathways and seemingly not a bit bothered by the passer byes. The main scrapes seemed empty of many wading birds except quite a few Lapwing, either in summer plumage or juveniles they stalked slowly around in the shallow water, enabling quite a few nice reflections. 

The only other bird seemingly enjoying the shallow water was Teal, lots of odd pairs popped up all the way around the reserve. We did get a brief glimpse of a Marsh Harrier as it lifted up from the middle of the reed bed, doing a quick circuit and disrupting the majority of the gulls before returning back out of sight.

Black Headed Gull

Carrion Crow

Grey Heron

Lapwing

Drake Teal

By the time we had left Lodmoor and taken the scenic route around to RSPB Arne the light was starting to fade and the weather changing for the worse, not a lot showing close up, but Advocet, 
Bar-Tailed Godwit, Curlew, Oystercatcher, Teal & Mallard all showing out on the Middlebere Chanel.

I did manage a new tick on the species list for 2012, when we made it round to the hide overlooking the salt marsh and distant Poole Harbour beyond, a juvenile Spoonbill could be spotted stood amongst a group of 13 Little Egrets.

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A Black-headed Bombsite

With the cricket season here and the weather already proving a wash out, the first friendly was cancelled, so what to do with a unexpected free sunday? I know a trip down to the coast and Titchfield Haven NNR. The weather was still pretty indecisive and I must say any reserve that has enough hides to keep you sheltered from the frequent showers is good in my book.

The good thing about Titchfield is you park literally on the sea-front, the Solent merely feet away, plenty of action out on the waves but none of it anything other than Sailboats and Wind-surfers. On the opposite side of the road lies the Titchfield Haven reserve, a well managed and great location for watching wildlife, 6 Hides separated to 3 either side of the river that runs down into the Solent. The first thing that hit me though was the noise, thousands of Black-headed Gulls calling from the scrapes. A quick wander along the sea-front to the visitor centre and got my first glimpse of a pair of Linnets sat atop the surrounding gorse bush. Turnstones wandered up and down the footpath around the side of the small harbour totally unperturbed by the amount of human traffic. You often wonder when you turn up at these places, seeing the huge amount of cars and people if its going to be standing room only around the reserve, luckily nature didn't seem appealing to most, as once inside I probably only saw 10-15 people for the rest of the day.

The visitor centre side of the reserve has 3 hides overlooking the river and the water meadows. The usual Grey Heron, Cormorant, Mallard and Moorhen showed up on the river in the 1st Hide, the second two showing a bit more variety, a fairly biggish flock of Black-tailed Godwit grazed on the far side of the meadow, rising and falling regularly as they were often bombarded by Lesser Black backed Gulls.

Black-tailed Godwit

I did get quite excited about 15 minutes later when a stunning male Marsh Harrier (my first of the year) soared overhead spooking the Godwit flock and pretty much anything else within the vicinity. He landed briefly before being mobbed by 5 or 6 Carrion Crows, pretty rapidly disappearing back up the water meadows. Lapwing, Canada Goose, Teal and a Kestrel all showed well in the meadows as I sat dodging the rain drops in the hide.

A rather surprisingly nice lunch in the reserve cafe, and I was off out the other side of the river, All 3 hides over looking the scrapes and distant reed beds. It took a while to focus on any other birds as the Blur of Black-headed Gulls becomes more apparent. It would be hard to guess numbers but I'd say anywhere between 3000-4000 mostly paired off and nesting.

Just a narrow view of the Scrapes showing only a couple of Gull islands.

Once distinguished from the ever moving throng of Gulls, I spotted 9 feeding Black-tailed Godwit, 7 Avocet, Shellduck, Snipe, Shoveler, Gadwall, Oystercatcher, Herring Gull, Buzzard, Coot, Pheasant and a rather distant Fulvous Whistling Duck - a presumed escapee mingling with a couple of drake Mallard.

Black-tailed Godwits

Oystercatcher

Male Shoveler

So all in all a pretty a pretty good trip, with 35 Species logged, I'm sure there would be a few more if I could identify the bird song from the reed beds and trees. And an even bigger bonus I guess is I didn't get wet!

Goldies & Greylags

The hope of a Saturday morning lay in seems non existent these days, even when I want one Im still up at 7 am ish, a quick peep out of the window confirmed a frost and a clear sky, so off I trudged, along the footpath for a good wander around Middleton Estate and Longparish, I took off up Broadney path not a lot about except 3 rather cautious Roe Deer. A quick pit stop at the cover crop on the Middleway bend brought 5 or 6 Brown Hares chasing each other over the plough furrows. I did see 8 Fallow Deer emerge from the wood 2 or 3 fields over and make their way across the spring crop. A pretty uneventful trip down through the wood by Dick's cave and along Sugar lane into the village, not much seen but loads of birds singing, hidden between the branches in the bigger Oak and Beech trees.

A quick short cut through the village and Im hopping over the 5 bar gate and down onto the Halfwater, walking the river bank back to the house. Canada Goose, Greylag Goose, Mute Swan, Grey Heron, Tufted Duck, Mallard, Gadwall, Red Kite & Kestrel all seen, along with several Warblers signing away in the Riverside copses.

Back at home 2 1/2 Hours later, the sky now clouded over, I stand hidden waiting for the Goldfinches to land on the feeding station in the Garden, they've been frequent visitors since we put it up, and probably the reason the Sunflower seed feeder only stays full for a couple of days each time. In the 3 weeks or so we've been living there, I've found it really hard to photography them, they're a lot more flighty than any of the other garden visitors. So I was quite happy when they didn't spook and I managed to get a couple of nice shots.

Saturday evening came with a lapse in the afternoons rain, so Dad & I went off to have a walk around his other part of River the other side of the A303, there is a small Island (no more that 25ft long) in the middle of the River which probably had 5 or 6 nesting Greylag on it, a further 9 were out in the water meadows honking away.

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Totally Otterless

As I mentioned in my last post, I went off early on Wednesday morning last week in the hope of seeing one of the Rooksbury Otters, when I arrived on the edge of the lake at about 7 am I joined Grant on one of the fishing Jetties, having seen & photographed the Otters on the previous 2 evenings Grant had the same idea as me in getting there early in the morning. I must admit I haven't visited any large bodies of water at that time of the morning before and as the sun started to appear above the trees mixed with the mist rising from the waters surface, it created a very atmospheric scene. Just had the wrong lens on the camera to capture it.

We didn't see any Otters, but below is a link to Grant's webpage and the few Otter pics, you can also see is regularly updated work on Facebook - GrantAutonPhotography
http://www.gautonphotography.com/Nature-1/Fauna/Otter/22420448_mf68QG#!i=1792410987&k=LmLLd34


So totally Otterless, we had to make do with watching a very statuesque Grey Heron on the opposing side of the lake, which as the time ticked away became bathed in more and more sunshine, the ripples on the water reflecting nicely too.

Grey Heron

I was just saying to Grant that I didn't think the Heron was the usual Rooksbury suspect, when within about 5 minutes the resident Heron swooped in low squawking straight for the interloper. Causing the intruder to take flight being chased all of the way. Proving my theory right.

The Intruder

There are always plenty of Coots on the lake, and if you sit and watch them long enough they are pretty good value, especially when walking on water, possibly the most ungraceful exponents of this behavior. Im still fascinated by the size of their feet, I guess they're quite a hinderance when it comes to being graceful.

Walking on Water

Relaxed Rooksbury

With Spring officially here and some scorching weather descending upon the UK last week, I took a trip down to Rooksbury Mill on friday lunchtime, basking in gorgeous sunshine. The normal dark and dingy lakes now crystal clear and as calm as a millpond. Half a dozen pairs of Tufted Duck & Gadwall are paired up on the smaller Barlows lake, and joined by 4 outcast Mute Swan Cygnets. The Grey Heron was also stood in his/her normal spot beside the River Anton.

Mr & Mrs Gadwall

Mrs G in a bit of a flap 

Gadwall Female

Grey Heron

The sound of the A303 was drowned out by the gorgeous chorus of singing birds, most noticably Chiffchaff and Wren. Whose song really seems to become more prominent and noticable at this time of the year, well I think it does, I also have found it extremely hard to get a decent photograph of a Wren in the past, so I couldn't believe my luck when this little fella landed in-front of me and started singing his/her heart out.

Wren

Mid Song

Taking the short path over the streams out on to the board walk and the bigger Mill lake, I spotted a couple of Coot milling around near the lake edge, and the Great-crested Grebe out in the middle of the water, with the sun positioned perfectly behind me, and the shadow from the trees behind hiding any of my own, I crept down and sat on the bench by the waters edge, and waited.

Great-crested Grebe 

Great-crested Grebe

Great-crested Grebe

Monster Coot? 

This part of the lake seems to be adorned with surface weed, which Im guessing is the main attraction for the Grebe whence feeding, just a pain for photography as it was preventing some cracking reflections. Another thing that really did surprise me as when the Grebe swam over next to a Coot, 

in-comparison it looks a lot smaller, now for some reason I've always thought of a Grebe in all its elegance to be somewhat one of the bigger waterborne birds in the UK. I now feel a bit stupid, and like I don't really pay attention to the species I am photographing at all.

Also I've been thinking more and more lately, how my photography has kind of hit a wall, I feel im now pretty proficient with my camera skills, but need to change the composition and how I construct an image, so Im gonna try to make a more conscious effort to make the subjects shot a little more engaging mainly by getting lower or more on the same level. Also maybe in the past I've relied heavily on editing to boost the image, I think a little more natural look and feel maybe more suitable