Goosander and a mimic?

Earlier this week saw me back up to Milton Keynes and another visit and walk around Caldecotte Lake (the ‘boss’ is still away!). The water was almost back down to it’s normal level although the river was still very full and fast flowing. The bird life seemed to be very sparse up at the normal gathering point on the arm behind the pub, the large flock of Wigeon that are usually there were gone, which left just a few Tufted Ducks, two drake Pochard, three Great Crested Grebe, quite a few squabbling Coot and an elusive female Goosander and that was about it.
Further round and the dam wall was covered from end to end with Black-headed Gulls with the odd Common Gull mixing in. The  rest of the main lake seemed to be devoid of any birds at all, save for a couple of Mute Swans ‘upending’ close to the bank. And then I saw the reason why there were so few birds…in the distance coming from under the road bridge, side by side and, causing a large wake were two boats..a speedboat and the RIB from the yacht club! Not much hope of seeing any birds today then?

As I continued on around a large flock of Graylag Geese came flying noisily in from the meadow by the river where I’d seen them grazing earlier.

I managed to ‘catch’ these two.

Further on around, in the quieter waters by the houses and the bandstand, I spotted a male Goosander. Taking cover behind a tree I was able to get reasonably close, and for once it hadn’t spotted me. I spent a good half an hour taking photos but with the contrast between the Goosanders dark head and white body I was having difficulty with setting the correct exposure on the camera, either getting blocked in darks or blown highlights!

Here’s two of my best efforts…

 



I almost got the green sheen on it’s head in this one!!

Moving on and my attention was drawn to a funny sounding cooing noise coming from the branches above me, almost like a cooing Wood Pigeon but not as clear or as loud, scanning the branches I soon located the culprit…it wasn’t a Wood Pigeon, but a Carrion Crow attempting a very good impression of one. I tried to get some video but as soon as I got the camera to focus through the branches it flew off, it’s always the way!!
Further on and I met a little old lady out walking her dog ‘have you seen the Heron’ she said ..‘no none yet today’ I replied… ‘there’s one there’ she said pointing to a juvenile Heron on the far side of the water and then we both heard a sound…’Woodpecker’ she said…and that’s what it sounded like to me a bit weak but definitely a drumming Woodpecker. Scanning through the branches and no Woodpecker to be found, and then the drumming sound again…almost above our heads this time, an there doing it’s best to be a Woodpecker was…yep!…a Carrion Crow, the same one that was earlier being a Wood Pigeon! The little old lady went off shaking her head and saying ‘ my husband won’t believe me when I tell him about this’. I’m not sure I believed it either, I knew that Crows were intelligent birds but I didn’t know they went in for mimicry? 

Not much to report from the rest of my walk around the lake, a dozen or so Cormorants loafing in the trees on the island and a small raft of gulls out in the middle of the south lake and the odd Mallard and Tufted ducks. And Keith’s ‘pet’ Robin came zooming in for some food, even before I’d got the bag of seed out of my pocket!
And to finish, showing well in the sunshine, a Carrion Crow…no, not ‘the’ Carrion Crow!

Checking out Keith’s birds

Earlier this week I had occasion to visit Milton Keynes and, as Keith is away sunning(?) himself half way up a Welsh mountain at the moment, I decided to have a quick look to see how ‘his birds’ around Caldecotte Lake were fairing during his absence!
I only had a short time so was only able to have a look at the ‘arm behind the pub’. The lake is now back to it’s normal level after the recent flooding but surprisingly there wasn’t many birds around…perhaps Keith has taken them all away with him?…a few Wigeon and Tufted Ducks, a few Coot and a couple of Mute Swans and in the distance three Grey Herons were having a bit of a set too, with quite a bit of squawking and chasing around going on, watching through the bino’s it appeared to be an adult bird giving grief to a couple of juveniles…time for them to be on their way, I guess?
A pair of Great Crested Grebe appeared not too far away doing some ‘head wagging’ unfortunately they didn’t get into the full ‘weed dance’ routine and seemed to lose interest after a while and drifted away.


I then spotted, close into the far bank, a male and two female Goosanders. I slowly moved down to the waters edge and tried to hide behind a small group of bushes in the hope that they would swim out into more open water. Eventually one of the females ventured a little closer.



I don’t know what spooked them, perhaps they spotted me?…but all of a sudden they were up and away.



There were lots of Black-Headed Gulls, some just cruising around….



…and others just loafing on the water.



A good many of them have started to acquire their brown head covering now.

In amongst the Black-Headed Gulls I spotted a couple of 1st. winter Common Gulls and as they flew around I noticed that they both had leg rings, I spent quite a few minutes attempting to get some images of them, I eventually, after almost melting the shutter on the camera!!, got some images where I could read the numbers on the rings. This one has a white ring on it’s right leg with 17EB on it, it also has a metal ring on it’s left leg.



This one has a green ring on it’s right leg with JO59 on it, it also has a metal ring on it’s other leg.



The same bird…resting!



The next day I sent off the ring details to the Euring ring recovery service, the following morning I received an email from a Mr. Morten Helberg in Norway telling me that ‘JO59’ had been rung, presumably as a chick, at Tveitevannet Lake in Bergen Norway on 19th. August 2013 which is 1001Km (622 miles) from Caldecotte Lake although, apart from a few sightings as it travelled south through Norway, we don’t know where it’s been or how far it’s travelled in the interim.
It’s always interesting to get information on how far, and where, a particular bird has traveled from and to and also to know that, now my sighting has been logged, I’ll always be a small part of that bird’s history.
I’m still waiting on any info/news of the travels of  ‘17EB’…I’ll keep you informed if I hear anything.



  

IT’S ABOUT TIME…..

….This is my first post since the start of the year and I guess most of you will have now fully recovered from all the excesses and celebrations and, despite all the rain, be well into the delights and discoveries of 2014, it certainly seems that way when reading all of your excellent posts.
The main reason that I’ve not done a post till now is due to a large dose of apathy brought on by starting the year off with a mega cold/flu(?) that lasted from Boxing day through the most of the first three weeks of January. Then for the last couple of weeks it’s been a matter of finding the time, there seems to have been lots of those little important jobs that couldn’t be left any longer and needed to be done.  The third reason/excuse is that, although I’ve been out and about on a few occasions (most times with Keith), I’ve not managed to take many decent photographs.

So, after all of the excuses here’s a few almost half decent images!

This first one was taken on New Years Day when Keith and I, after visiting RSPB Titchwell in Norfolk, went to the nearby Holkham Nature Reserve. The day day had turned cold and wet with a steady downpour, it wasn’t doing my cold any good!  Little did we expect to find this many people out in the cold and the rain, the road is about a mile long, there were so many cars and people that we had difficulty finding anywhere to park the car!

What’s it like in the Summer??

A few flight shots…


Mute Swan  RSPB Frampton Marsh Lincolnshire - 2nd.January


Cormorant  Caldecotte Lake Buckinghamshire – 23rd. January


Male Pochard  WWT Welney Norfolk – 27th. January



Mallard WWT Welney Norfolk - 27th. January



Lapwing RSPB Frampton  Lincolnshire – 3rd. February


Part of a large flock of Black-tailed Godwit  RSPB Frampton – 3rd. February

A MAN FROM THE NORTH AND ROSEMARY'S DUCKS

Earlier in the week I had the pleasure of meeting up with a fellow blogger.  

Adrian  the self styled old age traveller of Adrian's Images fame, he who keeps us entertained with his dry and witty musings as he wends his way around the country in his camper van accompanied by his faithful sidekicks  Alf and Molly, had come to visit  'our patch' for a couple of days.  

I'm not going to bore you with the details of what we did or where we went, Adrian tells it much better than I ever could in his blog.

 
The first day was spent walking around Keith's local lake, Caldecote.  And later a photo session with some ornamental ducks on the pond  at Adrian's camp site. The evening before Adrian had chatted up and worked his charm on Rosemary the proprietor'ess of the campsite who came and unlocked the gate to the pond and allowed us to go in and take photographs at our leisure . (there was a high electric fence and cage around the pond to keep out the local foxes and other unwelcome visitors!)


Rosemary's Ducks

                       
                        Bahama Pintail                                 Silver Bahama Pintail

                         Marbled Teal                                              Ferruginous Duck

                                Chiloe Wigeon                                Cinnamon Teal

                                           Mr and Mrs Carolina Wood Duck

Day two involved an early start and a visit to Summer Leys reserve in Northamptonshire. Unfortunately the wildfowl on the water were mobile and distant after being disturbed be a group of people using boats to undertake some sort of survey work. 

A distant Shelduck adds some colour to the grey water.

One highlight of the day was seeing a beautiful pair of Bullfinches as they visited the feeding station and also a paddling cock Pheasant. 

He looked none too happy getting his feet wet!

A female Reed Bunting bracing herself against the wind!

And further on a group of Goldfinch shining in the sunlight as they busily fed on some Teasel  heads.

 

And to round the day off Adrian treated Keith and myself to a meal in the local pub.

Thanks Adrian, it was a pleasure to meet and walk with you,  I hope you enjoyed your all too brief visit to our local patch. Perhaps next time you'll be able to stay a bit longer and we can show you more of our local sites, and maybe with some sunshine thrown in for good measure!