Headed back to our favourite rspb reserve this morning and staying in a cottage around the corner for a whole week ! It was a beautiful sunny morning but we didn't start out too early and arrived after 10am for a quick recce round. It was fairly quiet on the main reserve although we did see a distant Great Egret as well as 4 of their smaller cousins and I believe there are two or three Cattle Egret so we'll catch up with those hopefully another day. After no reports for a week of the Great Grey Shrike, it was spotted by two rspb senior staff this lunchtime so it was a very pleasing report - not sure we'll see it ourselves during our week here but we were glad to hear it was staying around the area. Bitterns have also been reported and the same staff saw one today at Causeway hide and then same bird in flight. We haven't ventured off the main reserve on our quick trek round but lots of time to do that duirng the next 6/7 days.
Robins are a plenty as you would expect on this reserve and plenty willing to hop on to your hand or help themselves to live mealworms from the tub ! One robin was trying to break the four minute robin record today and eventually I had to politely ask it to head back to the twig before my frozen fingers dropped off lol A water rail was too close for photos as I had the 300mm x 2 on the camera but managed record shot of it. Not many pics today as it was a day for strolling round and looking through binoculars.
I won't keep Paul (MC) waiting for his robin fix so will start with those ....
We saw one Great Egret and four Little Egrets
GE was a bit distant for pics - seen from Lilians Hide
and its smaller cousin taking off
was a little breezy !
We saw a pair of Bearded Tits on the Grisedale grit tray but no decent pics
Lots of ducks around including these attractive Teal - Drake
female Teal
and rhe record shots of the Rail
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Regards, Hazel
Glad Chris is looking after you and you are finding plenty to keep you busy whilst keeping warm indoors. Plenty of time to catch up with birding this winter so wait till you are feeling better. There were at least two female Marsh Harriers flying around the salt marshes this morning which made for super viewing and the male was on the main reserve area this afternoon.
Sorry to hear your weather gone 'orrible aitch ... been following your exploits & thoroughly enjoying all pics from the comfort & warmth of my chair ... Happy Birthday for ' whenever' ... no chance of checking back for right date til site improves! Take care x
2013 photos & vids here
eff37 on Flickr
'American Wigeon'? wasn't that a song by The Guess Who'?
Unicum arbustum haud alit duos erithacos
(One bush does not shelter two Robins)
Zenodotus (3rd Century B.C.)
This is a shot I took in December 2015 of an American Wigeon at Loch Leven, Tony.
The conditions were much the same as what Hazel’s getting down there at the moment, very cold & dull, so a bit of a grainy record shot when zoomed in. There doesn’t look to be too much of a difference to me, and as Hazel has pointed out, perhaps the time of year (and brighter conditions) could account for the slight differences in colouration. I’m not personally seeing much to suggest that your bird is a hybrid.
My bird photos HERE
Thanks Paul. I got the date wrong I thought it was last summer I saw it but in fact it was in November last year. That would make it a more likely time of year to see one. It does look pretty similar to yours so I feel more confident about the ID.
Let's hope Hazel sees it although the weather is not looking good for the next few days
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Tony
My Flickr Photostream
TeeJay said:Let's hope Hazel sees it although the weather is not looking good for the next few days
I will certainly try over the next three days as we tend to venture out in all weathers as you know LOL Got me' wellies lol
Most have been the pictures that made me think it had been dull :( and yes you have had some nice days but tomorrow looks like its going to be a wet one so you best get wrapped up well and i know it takes a lot to keep you from going out, so hope you have a nice day even without the camera take care and keep warm.
Jim
My Pictures
My Fbook Group
It was good to meet up with you and Mike again and to meet Jason. I think the birds put on a good show for us. Even if the rarer ones didn't play ball on the day, we had some great views and some excellent photo opportunities, especially the disgruntled Little Egret stalking around and eventually bathing. I'll put a few up myself in a mo', including a Snipe or two.
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Nige Flickr
Some cracking photos there Hazy, just love the bathing LEgret, you have caught it just right, at times just a bundle of feathers, fabulous. The Goosander too is a smart bird, glad you met up with Jason and Nigel and had a good walk around - 11 kilometers - pretty good trek I'd say:-)
Lot to learn
Went to the salt marshes for a couple of hours this morning just after 8am; it felt strangely mild but blowing very hard and the wader birds were spread out in different smaller groups apart from a murmuration of lapwings that kept spooking and sweeping over the marsh pools before settling again. For an hour Mike and I were the only people there and we searched and searched through numbers of distant wigeons to try see if anything stood out differently ie., American Wigeon. Nothing glared obvious at us although we were pretty much limited to bins and the little celestron hummingbird scope. We did see a single Dunlin (apparently a reported one-legged Dunlin ! ) keeping a flock of Redshank company and there was a single Spotted Redshank foraging (at speed) on its own. After an hour a knowledgeable chap joined us and found a single Golden Plover and then told us the American Wigeon was there in close proximity to the Plover. At first we were unsure when we viewed the bird he spoke about but as we are far from knowledgeable we accepted this great find. I had seen a photo the day before on a digi-scoped pic of the AW and it was different, much paler head and different flank colouring and a lot more pale cream on the headstripe and cheek area. It got more complicated when we got the main reserve when they said it was possibly a hybrid but more likely a normal Wigeon but maybe a 4th generation bird, just more mature, hence the deeper green flash across the head.......... ironically, at the same time they received a telephone call in to reception reporting that yesterday a cross hybrid American Wigeon/American Teal had been seen at Hest Bank nearby !!! For now we are going with the ID of normal Wigeon, perhaps just a more mature, older bird - but who knows lol So I guess our search for the proper American Wigeon is still on.
For what its worth, I will put a photo of the Wigeon up; as I say, more likely a regular Wigeon ........
Then the Golden Plover ..... a lapwing was in front of it. Unfortunately all the waders were facing with their backs to us sheltering against the strong gales.
distant shot of the one legged single Dunlin (that little dot left of the Godwit on left)
Spotshank .....
and although we didn't spend much time on the main reserve I did feed the confiding Water Rail - still too close to get in focus and later when I took the extender off it didn't come out of the brook as it was already full of mealworms lol
tooooo close Sir Walter (Rail-legh ) !
Not much else really, just mainly record shots from the salt marshes and the rail on the main reserve; rain stayed away pretty much all day but tomorrow may be wet so we'll see what transpires. I guess we'll be heading to the salt marshes again to find the AW weather permitting !!!