A DISTANT DUCK, AERIAL COMBAT AND A BIG FAT DIP

Yesterday I arranged to meet Keith, at silly o'clock (it was still dark!), in the car park at Wilstone, one of our local reservoirs.

Our quest? to see if we could locate the American vagrant that had been giving good sightings over the last few days...A female Ring-Necked Duck (aythya collaris)    Did we see it?  Eventually yes...sort of, but not until a grown up birder with a big spotting scope had pointed it out to us, it was quite distant!

In case you don't know what a Ring-Necked Duck looks like, here's a picture of it!

After the excitement of seeing 'the duck' we set off to walk around the rest of the reservoir.  After walking for about fifteen minutes it suddenly hit me that I no longer had the back pack, containing the wide angle and macro lenses that I usually carry around with me!  A quick rewind and I came to the conclusion that I'd left it in the bird hide, unloading my camera and bins onto Keith I set off to hopefully retrieve my belongings. Now, have you seen that funny walk  people do when they're in a hurry? .....two or three quick steps followed by a funny sort of  straight legged jogging then a few more quick steps, add in some muddy tracks and grassy banks...get the picture? I even passed two lycra clad young ladies that were out jogging/ walking their dogs (okay...okay...they'd stopped for a chinwag)  back at the deserted hide, there was my bag, exactly where I'd left it.  I shouldn't have worried, it was still early and any sensible birders were still in bed!!

It was a rather slower walk that I took to catch  back up with Keith!...the rest of our journey around the reservoir was rather less eventful, save for a quick glimpse or a long staying Water Pipit and a close flyby of some Greylag Geese that were returning to the water after feeding out in the nearby fields.

Our next stop was College Lake, just a few minute's drive away, where we were hoping to see the (three?) Jack Snipe that had been reported as showing well the previous evening. As we walked the circuit of the lake we stopped off at the various hides...no Jack Snipe to be seen though!

There were quite a few Common Darter dragonflies about along the footpaths, this female decided to have a little game of hide-and-seek with me.

At one end of the lake there is a large area covered in rough grass and small trees/shrubs and it's always a good spot for seeing Kestrels, Red Kites and Buzzards. It wasn't long before we were treated to a graceful/lazy flyover by this Buzzard.

Soon we heard the angry  kaar, kaar call of a Rook, it didn't take long to spot what all the noise was about, up in the sky above and, slowly drifting towards us, was a female Kestrel being harried by a rather persistent  Rook.

This went on above our heads for quite a while before the Kestrel  decided she had had enough and made a graceful exit.

There was one final hide to visit in the hope of seeing those Jack Snipe, although we did managed to spot four or five Snipe none of them were Jack Snipe. In other words we'd experienced what grown up birders call a 'dip' (or they've dipped) when time is spent looking unsuccessfully for their target bird.     And we'd just dipped...a big fat dip!!

Catching up time - part 2

Continuing with the theme from my last post here are a few more images from recent outings.

 Taken on Beacon Hill Buckinghamshire on April 1st.

Meadow Pipit

 Taken at College Lake Buckinghamshire on April 6th.

Canada Goose defending his territory

Images taken at Caldecotte Lake Milton Keynes Buckinghamshire on April 7th.

Barnacle Goose

Canada Goose

Images taken at Marston Vale C.P. Bedfordshire on April 11th.

Willow Warbler

And finally taken form my patio door on April 6th.

A woodpigeon getting prepared for new arrivals!

Catching up time - part 1

I find it much easier to go out and take the photographs than I do sitting at the computer processing and sorting them, especially when we have decent weather like we`ve had recently (I guess I`m not the only one!), but at last I’ve managed to find some time to catch up and process some images of my recent outings.

Images taken on and around Beacon Hill in Buckinghamshire on 28th  March. 

Pitstone Mill

Gorse (ulex eurupaeus)

Male Chaffinch in full song

Meadow Pipit

Male Linnet

A proud mum

Images taken at College Lake Buckinghamshire on April 6th

Redshank

Snipe

 Images taken at Caldecotte Lake Milton Keynes Buckinghamshire on April 7th

Two images of Keith`s Bramblings. Sorry Keith, this is the best I could do, the birds were very skittish due to the numerous dogs and joggers!!

(Keith, could you please do a little pruning before my next visit,Thanks).

And finally my first Brimstone photograph of the year, this Female settled just long enough for me to get a couple of quick shots.

 Part two of Catching up time to follow later!

A Mill, 2 Kites, some Larks and a surprise.

There was only one day forecast to be sunny last week so I decided to make the most of it and visit College Lake in Buckinghamshire (bad choice, as will become clear later). I arrived at about 9.30am and the first sound I heard was a Chaffinch singing from amongst the trees that surround the car park. I made my way through the new visitor centre to the first hide which overlooks most of the site but in particular the marsh area. Here I spotted Canada Geese, Mallard, Wigeon, Gadwall, Tufted Ducks, Grey Heron, Mute Swan, Lapwing, Coot , Moorhen, Water Rail, Cormorant, Carrion Crow, Wood Pigeon and a single Oystercatcher. The next hide is situated low down at just above eye level to the marsh area, it’s just occurred to me that these hides must have names, I’ll check next time!

 I sat here for about an Hour or so watching the activity on the marsh by this time my “bad choice” had started to make itself apparent, I’d forgotten that it was half term school holidays and now groups of adult and children had started to arrive. Now I’m all for teaching children about our wildlife and countryside, in fact I think it’s a must, but should it not be pointed out to the adults in charge of these children that these types of sites are not free for all playgrounds and that they must respect the facilities and areas that have taken, mostly volunteers, lots of time and effort to create. Sorry about the rant but there were children, some old enough to know better, climbing all over the seats with their muddy shoes on, opening and closing the hide windows, running around and stamping to make a noise on the wooden floor of the hide and for the most part with no checking or reprimand from the adults in charge. If they want their kids to run wild why don’t they take them to a theme park (I guess they would have to pay to get in there though!). I left the hide after one child asked the woman with her “what’s that bird over there” pointing to a Grey Heron only to be answered with “that’s a Flamingo”. I was going to say something but decided that I might just get some verbal abuse for my effort. SORRY, rant over now.

Before leaving the site entirely I took a walk around the small woodland and garden display area, here I saw my first Chiffchaff of the year calling from a perch high in one of the trees. I also saw Snowdrops and Winter Aconites.

Honey Bees from the few hives in this area were busy on the various shrubs that were just starting to bloom.

How many times do you pass a certain place and say to yourself “I’ll stop and have a look at that one day” and never do? Well, I’ve got such a place on my route home from College Lake it’s called Pitstone Mill. This time I didn’t have a choice, I had to stop! Just before reaching Pitstone Mill there is a 90 degree bend in the road and as I drove around this bend there in front of me were two Red Kites slowly circling above the road just over tree height. So on a snap decision I turned abruptly into the next available entrance, which just happened to be the small parking area for the Mill. (Now, if it was you driving the car behind me I must apologise for the sudden braking and sharp turn and assure you that I don’t normally drive like this). Having successfully stopped the car and fumbled about for the camera I relocated the Kites, as they were slowly moving away, and managed to take a few photographs alas in my haste only this one is of any use.

 

As I had at last stopped at the mill I thought I’d best have a look.

On my way through the fields down to the Mill I could see and hear three Skylarks singing as they slowly climbed into the sky before rapidly descending in a couple of steep dives. I stood watching and listening and letting my mind wander back to when I was a kid, growing up in the Cambridgeshire countryside, laying eyes closed, in the long grass on a warm summer evening listening to what seemed like wall to wall Skylarks doing “their thing”.

So the day didn’t turn out to be too bad after all, three year ticks and some reminiscing thrown in for good measure. 

Sunday 27/2/11   The Surprise!

Although it was a nice sunny Sunday morning I knew that the weather forecast was for a wet afternoon so I decided against going out and instead opted to give the camera gear a clean and check over and generally chill out and watch the birds visiting the feeders in the garden. To my surprise just as I looked up through the window down with the House Sparrows came a female Siskin, it was just by pure chance that I had the camera in my hands and was able to fire of a burst of  four shots before it was gone. 

Then to my even greater surprise, about 30mins. later a Blackcap made two quick darts from the Buddleia bush to the bird table, this time though I didn’t have the camera to hand  and I don’t think I would have been quick enough anyway!

So all in all, not a bad week, with 5 new year ticks added to the list. Let’s hope this coming week will be as good.