Rooksbury Water Voles - August 2014

Lunchtime wildlife trips seemed to have dried up during the first half of 2014, but come August with the sun basking down on Andover, I managed to escape the office for an hour and headed down to Rooksbury Mill. Lots of Water Vole activity on the back streams, and several individuals showed themselves often munching on a watercress supper, such characters!

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A Week at Rooksbury - 18th - 21st Feb

Massive apologies to all my blog readers as I am a whole 2 months behind, work has been manic for the past month or so and all lunchtime trips out have been halted in there tracks. But you don't want to hear about that so I will try catch up on some blogging normality, I would say expect them all thick and fast in the coming days, but we shall see.

So after the excitement of the Great Bustard it was back to the humdrum of a lunchtime walk around the lakes. Both appeared really quiet with hardly any birds visible on a fairly bright February Tuesday afternoon. 4 Little Grebe appeared on the large Lake and showed fairly closely for Little Grebe, both  a Sparrowhawk and a Cormorant perched atop waterside trees surveying the scene.

I managed to seek out a rather bold Goldcrest singing in the ivy tree at the far end of the reserve, and after a short wait I was rewarded with some lovely close views, even if the foreground and background was cluttered with twigs.

Goldcrest 

Singing Robin

With Rain on Wednesday, I returned Thursday lunchtime to an even quieter reserve, a brace of Gadwall pairs on the small Lake, and now only 2 Little Grebe on the large lake. Several Goldfinch fed on the thistles by the car park and I did catch a glimpse of a calling Grey Wagtail as it zoomed over the top of the water.

I did have some joy whilst sat on the bench overlooking the lakes, 3 raucous Mallard put down the landing gear, and somehow I managed to catch them in almost perfect synchronicity. They soon were joined by 3 other drakes who all raced off after the lone female.

So all in all quite a quiet week at the lakes, but nice to see a little of Spring in the air.

Little Grebes

Incoming Mallard

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A Goldcrest Frenzy - 8th Feb

After enjoying such a stunning sunrise, the weather by lunchtime had changed for the worst, it was now very dull and dismal, and the temperature hadn't really risen all day. So I arrived at the lakes without a lot of hope for some decent photographs because of the light.

Having had a run in with possibly the rudest photographer I've ever encountered over disturbance of the resident Otter and her trespassing into a clearly marked "Out of Bounds" Area therefore placing herself between the Otter and its holt, I politely told the facts and was responded to with a tirade of swearing and bitterness. I've been spoken to before by lots of blokes in the wrong but never by anyone so angry or bitter - and she was female, she was so angry she was literally spitting at me. 

Having lost all interest in Otter photography with idiots about, I walked back towards the car park not really paying to much attention, the lakes waters were pretty quiet and only the local Buzzard flying by grabbed my attention before I heard the sweet pinging melodic call of a Goldcrest. Unknowingly I seem to have undertaken a little bit of a Goldcrest photography project. Not often seeing a decent Goldcrest shot posted online I thought I'd make it my mission for the winter.

Goldcrest

My closest Goldcrest subject yet

I have become quite accustomed to picking out their song on my lunchtime walks, as the wintering populations around the lakes is quite high. Having on several occasions had one very close in a nearby bush, only to grab a lot of blurred shots due to their speed and size. And the main fact that they don't sit bloody still for more than a second, so once you move to focus they're gone.

So today although the light was poor and I was shooting at ISO 5000 and above, I got some clear-ish close up shots of a very obliging male. What happened next as I was watching this tiny bird flit before me on some willow was quite astonishing, and certainly something I had never witnessed before. The bird flew off across the path to a small clump of ivy about the same 3 feet off of the ground, and its call changed dramatically, with a much louder and alert ring to it.

And then he done it the head crest parted and the Bright flame orange tuft became clear, I must admit having never seen this before I thought it was pretty awesome for such a small bird. Still calling loudly, 2 blurs pasted quite close by me and headed straight for the calling male, Que. a small blurred mess of fighting male Goldcrests, beaks pecking, wings flapping and talons locked. Well it looked like that!!!

I wondered what had caused this sudden outburst of aggressiveness as the male birds zoomed off after each other up the path. 3 more now flitted in the Ivy bush in front of me presumedly females. Seconds later a male returned, crest still clearly visible and he landed close to one of the females again presumedly telling her he was the victor.

Stunning Displaying Male

The pair together

Just look at that crest!

A great way to end the lunchtime with some bird behaviour I had never witnessed before, and a great way to momentarily forget the evil bitch I'd spoken to earlier!

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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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Rooksbury Siskins - 5th Feb

With the sun shining and the rain having abated for a few days it was nice to get back into some sort of lunchtime routine, enjoying the dry settled weather for my lunchtime wander around the lakes. Apart from the odd Goldcrest from time to time and the obligatory group of Long-tailed Tits, small passerines are not often on the daily menu.

So you can imagine my delight when I rounded the path on to the lakeside board walk and was greeted by a small group of Siskin feeding in the water side Alder tree. My first of the year and I think the first I have seen around the lakes. Although a relatively common finch throughout the UK, I never seem to connect with them all that often.

I counted 5 in total 2 Males & 3 Females and they were quite obliging in allowing me to walk to the base of there tree. As is normal on an Andover lunchtime the sun regularly disappeared behind passing clouds, and seem to do this even more frequently as one of the male Siskin's occasionally came out to the ends of the branches to feed.

So I whacked up the Exposure settings on the camera and waited for such occasions. He even raised his head up from feeding on the catkins long enough for a few pictures too. Not I guess a miraculously exciting sighting for most, but it certainly made a change to me, and it was nice to watch these acrobatic little finches at such close quarters.

Male Siskin 

"Im going, im going, I'm....no wait I'm just hungry"

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Rooksbury Lunchtime - 11th Jan

Finally a lunch time wander in the sunshine, and my first visit to the lakes in the new year. Not a lot about really other than the usual wintering Tufted Duck on the Small lake about half a dozen pairs mixed in with 4 Little Grebe, Moorhen & 2 pairs of Gadwall.

It's funny how wildlife can still make you laugh, the below picture for instance tells the story a little bit but being there made me chuckle. Most of the Tufties headed away from me as I crouched down at the edge of the lakes to take some pics, all except this female. She remained posing for me in some gorgeous low winter sunshine. She suddenly turned around and realised the others had beggared off, and soon was hightailing it off after them, I must admit it still makes me smile now.

The Left Behind Tuftie

The remainder of my walk was pretty fruitless, I did get relatively close to a Little Egret perched up on one of the path side branches, something I have failed to do with the large population we have on the River at home. In the matter of 5 minutes the cloud had descended too. The only other sighting of note was 5 Canada Geese on the big lake.

Little Egret

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Lunchtime Otter

I don't think lunch hours get much better than this to be honest. My usual lunchtime jaunt around Rooksbury had been pretty unsuccessful, not a lot showing up at all on a bright crisp December day. I had gotten half way around my circuit of the big lake when I stopped to speak to the Fishermen, both moaning about in the influx of Cormorants that are tormenting the local fish populations. As one came into land they both jumped to there feet shouting and hollering. Its fair to say that the Cormorant didn't really take a blind bit of notice and proceeded to fish quite happily in front of them.

I left them reeling in a fish and carried on down by the waters edge, getting only 30ft further, when up popped a head 10ft away in the water. I froze, tripod mid air, no cover or anything as this particular edge of the lake has quite a bank that leads to it. My shape quite imposing with no background to hide it. 10 seconds seems an eternity when your trying to be invisible, as the head went under I moved a little closer trying to break my outline from the clear sky behind it.

An up pops the head again, again I freeze this time though I was prepared, camera was on and I managed to start snapping a few shots. After another breathtaking 10-15 seconds the Otter dived again, allowing me to get right down by the waters edge and conceal myself a little against a nearby bush.

Here it was hunting mere metres from the fisherman, presumably making the most of there bates attraction of the lakes fish. The lighting was really bright so had to struggle with the camera settings as best I could in such a situation. With one side of the Otters head in bright sunshine the other in shade. Below are 4 of the shots I manage to get fairly okish.

A cracking lunchtime encounter, at really close quarters. One I will never forget and I don't think will ever top!

Look at those Teeth!

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Frosty Foxes & Sleepy Swans

Early in December before the deluge of wet weather we had a couple of days of bitter cold. This was a great opportunity for a few visits down to Rooksbury in my lunch hour. This particular day my hands got so cold holding the tripod I had to stop every 50 yards to warm them up. Nothing much seemed to be about I paused for a couple of simple Mute Swan shots as the usual family of 3 and the odd half dozen of Tufted Duck dozed on the small lake. 

What happened next pretty much summed up my luck as a photographer. Coming out of the Stews area onto the board walk that runs partly around the main lake. I saw out of the corner of my eye, something bounding in the reeds to my left. A Fox.

Anticipating the Fox winding me I set my tripod up and turned the camera on ready. And crept as well as you can along a frozen pathway of slippery wood. The Fox either heard the shift of my considerable weight on the creaky wood, or caught my scent as it trotted off down the path.

Pausing for a quick look back I managed these 2 shots, well 4 frames exactly before off it went. Stood bang in the centre of the path wasn't the most camouflaged I've ever been, which was a shame as I'd have loved to have caught the fox bounding mid air for mice and voles in the reeds.

Dog Fox

Red Fox

Mute Swan B&W

Mute Swan Reflection

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Rooksbury Gull - ID Required

I've started spending my lunch hour walking around the local Nature reserve again now down at Rooksbury Mill, on this particular visit I was watching 2 Black headed Gulls circling with a rather larger cousin, which I assumed was a winter plumage Herring Gull, now my gull identification skills are pretty awful so if anyone could confirm for me I would be grateful.

The more annoying thing is, I was stood there busy photographing the gulls, wondering why they were circling over such a small part of the lake, when up popped an Otter no more than 30 ft away. DOH! That explained it! Another massive fail on my part, as it soon went under again. Photo missed.

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Macro Treat

So after promising to try and blog a lot more frequently, I must admit I failed miserably, but lifes hectic and wildlife's at a premium at this time of year. With the addition of the Moth Light trap to the garden and the new subjects to photograph in the form of the Moths, I thought I'd treat myself to a second hand Macro lens. Below are a selection of shots from my first outing with it one lunch hour around Rooksbury Mill Lakes.

The Bumble Bees and other insect life mainly Hoverflies quite enjoyed the yellow flowers that surrounded the old stock ponds nearby the mill. Plenty of Common Blue Damselflies buzzed around the walkway too, but none stopping long enough for me to get close for a picture. Until I spotted what I think is an immature Common Blue resting on a reed, quite impressed with the sharpness of the new lens too.

Bumble Bee

Immature Common Blue Damselfly

Gatekeeper

Lucilia Sericata

Male Banded Demoiselle

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Sunday's Otter Pics

I went down to Rooksbury again on Tuesday night in the hope of a sighting with dad, but the shear amount of people everywhere seemed to be the best reason to blame why we didn't see anything. Photographers & Joe public jumping up here and there, moving every 5 minutes, talking right on the edge of the water, towering above the skyline.

I hate to sound like Im being selfish and wanting them all to myself, because that isn't the case at all, Im all for encouraging people to view the wondrous wildlife we have to offer. I just wish people had the decency to have to wait and earn the luxury of Otter watching not just turn up and expect said Otters to be performing on tap. Time spent being quiet, stealthy, low down and still, have sufficed for me and Im sure by doing so I know Im not disturbing the wildlife or anyone else's enjoyment of it .

Sorry for the rant as promised my Otter pictures from Sunday evening, nice to finally capture them out of the water too without a raucous audience!