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.



  

A COUPLE OF LAKESIDE WALKS

I originally posted this last Monday (17th.) but it appears that there is still a problem with (some of) my posts not showing up on your reading lists!! So, I've changed the template and fiddled with a few settings and re-posted to see if that cures the problem.   I hope you can 'see' me now?

Just recently I've had the pleasure of accompanying Keith on a couple of very enjoyable walks around his local lake.

The first walk was a week or so ago when the country was gripped in the middle of a mini ice age!

The weather forecasters promised a very heavy frost and a cold and sunny day,  and how right they were,  minus  6°C and a heavy hoar frost made the lake look like it had been dusted with sugar icing and after an early misty and cloudy spell the blue sky and sunshine made the whole scene look spectacular.

This is the arty bit!...a reflection of the trees above.

A large proportion of the lake was frozen over and we were held spellbound as this beautiful fox slowly and gingerly made his way across the ice in the direction of a large group of resting gulls. How close would he get? The answer, not very!  once he got close to their comfort zone the gulls were up and away.  His attention on the gulls now broken he soon spotted us and trotted off and disappeared into the safety of the woods and  the undergrowth... A magical few minutes!

You've probably seen Keith's excellent video of the fox over on his blog, if not it's worth a look.

There were quite a few birds and waterfowl around but mostly on the unfrozen parts and rather distant so not many good photo opportunities. 

This Grey Heron however did  come close enough for a quick photo.

As did this Common Gull.

And this Black-headed Gull.

The conditions for the second walk, Sunday just passed, were completely different, some heavy overnight rain made the ground wet and soggy and the temperature was much warmer at a balmy 7 to 9°C. I met Keith in the car park at 7.30am and after he had seen to his feeding duties and with the prospect of a decent sunrise in the offing we quickly made our way to the bottom of the South lake and through the tunnel under the railway track to the 'crow field'.  After a short wait the sky started to 'colour up' and we were rewarded with a not too bad sunrise. 

Sunrise over flood water

On coming back through the tunnel we were greeted by very dark rain clouds building over the North of the lake and it wasn't long before this beautiful rainbow appeared over the pub.

Fortunately the threatened rain only amounted to a few spots as we made our way back to the car park for  a breakfast of coffee and cheese rolls, thanks Keith.

A quick excursion into nearby Bletchley to see if we could find the recently reported Waxwings soon produced a flock of about 40 or so but with lots of traffic and pedestrians about they were very flighty and it was difficult to get any decent  pictures so after  about an hour we went back to walk around the North lake.

By this time the sun had put in and appearance and it had turned into a very pleasant day.

Again there were not many birds offering photo opportunities  probably because by now a marathon race was in full swing around the perimeter track as well as quite a few walkers out enjoying the sunshine!  And  Keith's best friends, the boat people, were out in force on the lake!!

A Robin and a Dunnock 'posed ' on the footbridge.

And the ever attendant Black-headed Gulls are always pleased to put on a show, especially if there's some food on offer! 

Two great walks in totally different weather conditions and it just goes to show the beauty nature has to offer, you just have to be out there to enjoy it.