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!

Wet start to a great day

Last Monday morning dawned grey and wet (it had rained all night) as me and Keith made an early start to visit the RSPB Rye Meads reserve in Hertfordshire. We arrived just after 8am and in good time for the reserve opening. After having breakfast of coffee with cheese and ham rolls (which Keith had kindly prepared for us) we wandered down the road to have a look around Rye Gatehouse which was built in 1443 as the gatehouse for the Ogard Estate and was one of the first brick built buildings in the country. As you would expect it is now Grade1 listed.

Back to the reserve and in the reception area everyone was excited by the reports that a pair of Black-Necked Grebes had just been spotted on one of the lakes. So off we set in the rain (it did ease up and eventually stop around lunch time) and the common theme, as you would expect at this time of year, was young birds with frantic feeding activity from the parents.

Some Pictures

Canada Goose family (only the one gosling)

Cormorant

A pair of Gadwall

Whitethroat

Sedge Warbler

Tufted Duck (female)

And the highlight of my day was seeing at close range a stationary, for all of 30 seconds, Kingfisher. Until now my only experience of this beautiful bird was seeing a rocket like blue flash as they flew by!  Unfortunately, due to the dull weather, I had been experimenting with high ISO settings on the camera and it was still set to ISO 1600 hence, grainy pictures!  Hopefully I’ll be better prepared next time.

Ponies grazing in one of the marsh meadows

And finally back at the visitor centre this pair of Pheasants were busily scavaging for seed from under the feeding station feeders.

So, after five plus hours of great birding with over forty species listed (and yes we did see the Black-Necked Grebes, albeit distant even with the bino’s) it was time to leave this excellent reserve with a pledge to "be back soon”