Thanks as always to volunteer Phil for this brilliant sightings report from Friday 01 December!
Last week’s hen harrier caused much excitement and stayed around for several days, however no-one I spoke to on Friday was able to find it. It may have been around somewhere because there was a record on the sightings sheet in the Visitor Centre at the end of the day, but where it had been I really couldn’t tell.
Stationing myself on the North Brooks in the morning in the teeth of strong northerly with a ferocious wind chill, it became clear from my 15 minutes at the Hanger that there was going to be no particularly interesting set of waders or birds of prey to see. I started thinking that sometimes we get too bound up with looking for these types of birds and perhaps we should we spend more time appreciating the common birds we can find easily. I spent most of the day doing just that.
On the way to the Hanger in the morning I spent a few minutes in Fattengates courtyard admiring a goldfinch which always adds colour to any scene.
Nearby I glimpsed a nuthatch apparently slowly tapping its beak into a tree branch rather like a woodpecker, something I’ve not observed before. Apparently they sometimes wedge large insects into cracks in tree bark and pound them with their sharp beaks, presumably to break open a hard outer case. Maybe it was employing the same technique on a hard nut.
Retreating from the Hanger to Nettley’s Hide for some shelter from the wind I found a treecreeper doing what it usually does.
From the hide I found myself watching a grey heron patrolling the grass nearby. It looked as if it was practicing its watching and waiting skills, without actually standing next to a ditch or a pool. I wondered if it was a juvenile, but the white crown suggests not – maybe a 2nd winter bird.
Then some moorhens appeared feeding nearby showing their interestingly patterned back ends that I’d not especially noticed before.
Little egrets, while not exactly numerous here, are seen quite often, and one perched next to the ditch close to the hide. It is more usual to see them feeding in a pool.
I particularly noticed the yellow eye and the rather fluffy plumage making me wonder if it was a juvenile, but it’s actually the light-coloured bill that gives it away, adults having a black bill.
Further along the ditch a pair of magpies had taken over the fenceposts where we tend more often to look for the less obvious stonechat.
There were many wigeon feeding on the grass but in the same place were several black tailed godwits, something I’ve seen before without giving it any thought. It is however interesting because the food and feeding techniques of the two species are completely different so there must be some different attractions in and underneath the same patches of grass.
Several snipe were in their usual place hiding by the pool in front of the hide, with a solitary lapwing on the grass nearby. I noticed that the lapwing was a juvenile with a somewhat undeveloped crest and scalloped edges to the wing feathers, as in this photo of a similar one taken later near West Mead.
Eventually I left the North Brooks for warmer climes, arriving at West Mead in mid-afternoon. Near the hide was a robin on a fence – what could be more appropriate on the 1st December with Christmas looming?
But so often at other times of year we ignore these friendly birds. Anyone looking at our sightings records might wonder why there are so few robins here, yet it’s simply because people either overlook them or simply don’t bother reporting them.
At West Mead several raptors were seen earlier in the day including marsh harrier, 2 peregrines and several red kites, along with waders including several dunlin, a ruff and a few black tailed godwits. However, with all these birds having apparently moved on, I had to content myself with wigeon watching as there were several hundred on and around the pool, so many that it was easy to overlook the small numbers of teal, shoveler and pintail also present.
Now I find that watching wigeon is really rather engrossing and I spent an hour or so in the hide “chilling out” while watching them repeatedly perform a sort of ritual. Regular readers may recall that I described this briefly in an article from 3rd November but here is a fuller description. First, the birds all make for the right-hand side of the pool.
This is followed by the most curious phase where just a few birds lead the flock onto the bank as in this photo where several wigeon all appear to be following a female.
Notice that a teal has become embroiled in this procession but is facing a different way and not necessarily joining in. Typically there would be 3 separate processions of wigeon all moving from the right edge of the pool towards the grassy area. There they would coalesce into one very large group and proceed to feed on the grass – wigeon are vegetarian.
Then after a few minutes something would spook the flock, but I could never detect a reason for this except once when a kestrel flew over. On other occasions it may have been caused by people walking along the path from Redstart Corner where there are some gaps in the screen. The wigeon would then fly off in a panic back to the safety of the pool with their wingbeats creating a considerable noise.
Over the course of my hour this performance may well have been repeated about 10 times.
What I never once saw however was a wigeon upending to feed, despite the fact that they are classified as dabbling ducks. Where there is good grass available to nibble they seem to prefer that.
All the while there was much whistling going on and it occurred to me that many people might assume that ducks should quack, after all that’s what we’re taught at primary school. Never having thought much about this before, I researched duck calls at home and discovered that quacking appears to be more of a female trait than a male one. Most of our main winter species females, produce this sort of noise to a greater or lesser degree, and none more so than that classic of duckponds and lakes, the mallard. The female wigeon however produces something more like a low growl. By contrast drakes of several of our commonly seen species, including teal and pintail and even sometimes mallard and gadwall, have whistling calls. None of these however are as strikingly loud as the wigeon, which may explain why we don’t notice them so much here with so many wigeon present.
While the wigeon were providing the entertainment the low winter sun was producing lovely afternoon light, while gradually sinking in the south west behind the Downs to produce another wonderful sunset.
With the sun below the horizon the winter chill quickly returned to the hide and I beat a hasty retreat to the café to warm up over a pot of tea.