South Coast & Rooksbury 10th - 13th Feb

After a couple of weeks of fairly bright weather, the rains returned, seemingly at weekends and lunch hours when I had time to get out. I did having watched it piss down for most of Saturday decided to brave it on the Sunday and take a drive down to the coast.

First stop Hatchet Pond in the New Forest a nice waterside car park allowing a good view of the pond without having to get wet, Mallard, Black-headed Gull and a couple of Herring Gull all present. From there I headed towards Sowley Pond, picking up a lone Red Kite, presumedly at the Southern most point of the UK range. 

Plenty of Chaffinches flew up from the roadside ditches but no sign of any Brambling. I passed several ploughed fields one covered in around 2000 Rooks, the other a mix of Lapwing and Pied Wagtail.

Arriving at Sowley Pond, I found my self a viewing gap from the road having a quick scan for some Mallard, Great-crested Grebe and around 30 Pochard. Quite a high count for an otherwise quiet lake.

Next stop on my wet whistle stop tour of the south coast, Lepe, not timing my visit very well as the tide was mere metres from the car park reducing the beach to a small sand pit. Plenty of Turnstones and Black-headed Gulls touring the car park, with the occasional flyby of a larger Herring Gull. I did have a rather amusing encounter watching the Turnstones flipping over pebbles before being scattered by an incoming Carrion Crow, who then proceeded to steal said stone.

With the tide reaching further in I headed the short distance around the coast to Calshot, by this time the weather having taken an even further turn for the worse. Having to park the car passenger side on to the wind and rain, I managed to make out around 25 Brent Geese and 2 Black-tailed Godwit feeding on a grassy area in front of the power station.

Giving up for the day I headed home the scenic route up the Test Valley, stopping at Mottisfont for a ganders on the bridges, the only bird of note, a male Kestrel perched atop a bank side tree.

Carrion Crow - Pebble and all!

Monday morning on the way to work, the car gives up the ghost just yards from the front door, lucky it wasn't the day before 40 miles from home. The garage say it will cost more to repair than what its worth so seemed like the kick up the arse I needed to look for a new motor. Which by Tuesday evening having found, looked around and test drove, I agreed to purchase. I've never spent £8000 quite so quickly nor I doubt I will again.

Using the truck as my daily commute, I did manage to get out on the Wednesday lunchtime around the lakes, but the wildlife seemed as scarce as the sunshine, so I made do with photographing the resident Mute Swans. Who still seem to be pretty happy with the presence of last years cygnet, although I am guessing in coming weeks he/she might find him/herself out on his/her ear.

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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 New One For The List

So it seems getting around to writing a blog post at the moment is about frequent as more than 2 days of sunshine in a row. I was looking back through what I had and hadn't posted lately, and realised im about a month behind. So here is a conscious effort to catch up. The following images where taken from the weekend of the 1st July. My last and latest venture out and about away from the comforts of the River Test. 

Nat was down for the weekend, so we headed off to the Thatcham Nature Discovery Centre & Reedbed's Reserve in the hope of maybe adding something different to the species list that seems not to have been added to much in the past 2 months or so and also the pleasure of visiting a new site which wasn't to far from home. Turns out we were pretty disappointed, proving more to be a outdoor adventure playground for the kids than a nature reserve, the lakes where surrounded on all sides by screaming and shouting children running here, there and everywhere. Coupled with dogs doing as they pleased on the paths. It wasn't long before we left in huff, questioning the mentality of the population of Thatcham.

There where however a few species of Waterfowl to photography on the lakes, and I did add a new species to the list, one that seems to have eluded me until this stage in the year. 4 Egyptian Geese present, taking the list up to 141.

Egyptian Goose

Greylag Goose 

Greylag Goose 

Moorhen

Pochard 

So having left with the sun shining and the rest of the afternoon in front of us, we popped in quickly to see how the Cricket team were getting on away to Burghclere, turned out the local farmers happened to be making the most of the good weather, cutting and bringing in the silage in the fields surrounding the cricket pitch. The arrival of 5 Red Kites proved far more entertaining than the cricket as they circled and called high above the pitch.

Red Kite

With plenty of rain falling in early july, the feeding stations around the garden seem to have been repopulated although none of the visitors stay to long for a photograph, although a Blue Tit did perch long enough for a picture. Another visitor to the lawn making the most of the softer ground has been the Green Woodpecker, who did pose for a picture Im fairly happy with.

Blue Tit

Green Woodpecker

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Sunny Sunday!

Waking up to some gorgeous sunshine on Sunday morning was a much better feeling, loading up the gear and heading down to Steeple Langford to the Wiltshire Wildlife Trusts reserve at Langford Lakes, a new location for me and only Half an hour drive from home.

Plenty to see and all 4 hides were empty. 4 Great-crested Grebes the highlight also spotted on the water Tufted Duck, Pochard, Shoveler, Gadwall, Mallard, Coot, Cormorant, Canada Goose, Little Egret, Goosander and a rather large flotilla of Gulls, with plenty of Black-headed Gull, Lesser Black-backed Gull, Common Gull, Herring Gull and a rather distant Mediterranean Gull. I'd imagine the roost to grow even more later on in the day.

The smaller feeding station proved quite busy, with Blue Tit, Great Tit, Long-tailed Tit, Chaffinch, Greenfinch & Moorhen stopping by. Also seen around the reserve Blackbird, Dunnock & Wren.

All in all a pretty good reserve, quiet, easy to find, and loads of new work undergoing for a scrape and new hide. Considering its close proximity to home, I was impressed with the location and the wildlife.
A great place to see Grebes.

Tufted Duck - Drake

Tufted Duck - Duck

Great-crested Grebe

Great-crested Grebe 

Great-crested Grebe

Tufted Duck - Drake

Robin

Blue Tit

Chaffinch - Male

Long-tailed Tit 

Long-tailed Tit

Moorhen

First Schoolboy Error Of The Year

A free Sunday, no plans at all! To Blashford Lakes near Ringwood once I could get Kath up an rearing to go (Don't think she was rearing all day to be honest.) 10am Departure planned, so its a bit rubbish when you have to go and wake your sister up at 10.05am on a Sunday morning so you can go birding. So 10am Departure turns into 11am. 

Now having treated myself as a necessity to a Manfrotto 679B Monopod with a Tilting Head, mainly because of the weight of my new Lens we left the car and the car park to head toward the Lapwing and Goosander Hide's overlooking Ibsley Water, having had a quick peep through the Tern Hide and being greeted by a dead Mute Swan, wings outstretched and pointing towards the Pearly Gates, we hoped for better sightings.

Around 1200metres later whilst setting the camera up on a couple of Long Tailed Tits flitting around in the Wintery sun, I realise that I don't actually have a Memory Card in the camera! And so happens the first Schoolboy Error of the year. a 25 minute round trip later, I join Kath in the Lapwing hide with both spare memory cards I carry in my camera bag. The hides other inhabitants looking a little surprised at my sweat cover brow, after my Half Run, Half Walk to catch up. So now I can talk about birds, Ibsley water was absolutely teaming with Waterfowl, thousands of Coots, Wigeon, Mallard, Mute Swans, Tufted Duck, Canadian Geese, Greylag Geese, Goosanders, Great-Black Backed Gull, Shoveler, Shellduck, Gadwall, Black Headed Gull, Cormorant, Grey Heron & first Rarity a female Scaup.

Tufted Duck

After a brief port of call in the Goosander hide, we headed across the road to the smaller, and more woodland surround lakes & the rather impressive Woodland Hide. Now I know I like to moan about photographers, but this really took the biscuit. I'll set the scene. An octagonal Hide with only the 2 end windows open-able, the rest of the glass blacked out due to the close proximity of the Feeders 2-3 metres in front. Now in a free moving, care for other nature lovers kind of way you kind of expect the turn around for a seat on the open windows to be fast moving, take your picture and move on let someone else have a go kind of thing. Instead no we are just gonna sit here all day annoying other people. I overheard that the 3 "Photographers" hogging the window, had been perched there since 8.35am, I looked at my watch, 2.45pm. To make matters worse, they were all deep in conversation, with Nuthatch, Siskin, Chaffinch, Great Tit, Blue Tit, Greenfinch, Treecreeper & Lesser Redpoll all flocking in around the feeders and not one being photographed because of a more interesting conversation about the length of time the British Butterfly Association website had been up and running. Therefore I apologise for the not quite crystal clear sharpness I could have had if permitted a seat for 5minutes rather than having to shoot through blackened windows.

Siskin

Treecreeper

Lesser Redpoll

Greenfinch

Nuthatch

Great Tit

All in all other than my ever dwindling disrespect for other members of the general public, a fairly good trip was had. We did manage another first and Im sure a rarety, a bit far for a decent picture but definately possitvely identified a Ferruginous Duck out on the Ivy Lake in amongst some Pochard. Which takes my county list up too 63 so far for 2012.

My First Bittern

A dry day, a Christmas family day out. Cameras, Scopes, Binoculars & Warm waterproofs packed. Sat Nav programmed for Slimbridge WWT, A quick flick around the collection of ornamental birds and plenty of ducking a diving at the hoards of incoming Geese.

Incoming Greylags

And off towards the Kingfisher Hide, a quick pit-stop in the Van De BovenKamp Hide as the majority of foot traffic where headed towards the more exciting Kingfisher Hide, was well worth the stop, as after around 5 minutes of scanning the edges of various reed beds, my first ever Bittern spotted skulking along the edge of the water 100 yards from the hide, Magical! Interesting to see the Mallard on the water mirroring the Bittern as it stalked its way along the waters edge to a thick clump of reeds. Showing for a good 10minutes, Not the best photos, but definitely clear enough to tell what it is. Well worth the trip!

Bittern

The Kingfisher hide didn't show any Kingfishers, but a good outlook over the water meadows showed a lot of Curlew in the distance, the Bird feeders hanging from the nearby trees, had Blue Tit, Great Tit, Chaffinch and regular visits of scavenging Jackdaws a few sitting still long enough for me to shoot of a couple of pics.

Blue Tit

After parting with a small fortune for a Baguette in the Restaurant we got down to some serious Wildfowl watching, first stop over looking the Tack Piece, the Martin Smith Hide giving any visitor and serious birder a pretty breathless first glance. Ducks, Geese, Swans as far as the eye can see, Hundreds, Thousands all feeding on the flooded water meadows. Wigeon, European White Fronted Geese, Goldeneye, Pintail, Pochard, Bewicks Swans, Mallard, Common Teal, Tufted Duck, Redshank, Dunlin and Lapwing all mixing together.

Feeding Wigeon

Just A Small Number Of The Feeding Wildfowl

A Huge flock of Golden Plover fed on the far side of the water meadow often rising and re-settling again, getting us all excited in the hope of a Peregrine zooming through the middle of them, no birds of prey unfortunately other than two rather sedate Buzzards perched on matching fence posts. Also spotted on the Tack Piece a good view of a pair of Lesser Scaup a somewhat rarity for the country.

Common Teal

View Of The Tack Piece

Golden Plover

Golden Plover

A final stop at the Rushy Hide, gave some great views of drake Pintails, and a female Goldeneye.

Female Goldeneye 

Drake Pintail

So all in all a good day, with a couple of firsts the Bittern, Pintail & Lesser Scaup. And seeing thousands of wintering birds on the Tack Piece something I wont forget in a hurry. Definitely worth the trip!

Happy New Year Everyone!