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
Gorgeous photos Hazel :)
see my photos on Flickr http://www.flickr.com/photos/maggyn/
Wet and windy days are always tricky for bird viewing and photography. Nevertheless some nice shots. Good to see the Spotshank and the close-ups of the Rail are always special.
HAZY said:For what its worth, I will put a photo of the Wigeon up; as I say, more likely a regular Wigeon ...
If it is a regular Wigeon it's a very unusual looking one. I've never seen one with green on the head like that. Here's a typical looking one that I normally see.
Maybe it is a hybrid although with what I've no idea.
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Tony
My Flickr Photostream
Thanks Tony, I love your photo of the Wigeon pair, looks like mrs Wigeon is giving the hubby a right earful LOL
Tthe experts at LM thought it was maybe 4th generation which can throw in that green colour sometimes but when the phone call came in from a member of the public, ironically around the same time this guy who had searched through his bible of bird books, said he had seem a hybrid AW and American Teal just down the coast near Morecambe yesterday (Hest Bank) Whatever it is I was glad we saw it as it certainly was unique and had everyone interested and guessing.
Hazel, Thanks for all the gorgeous pics despite the weather. Love the close Rail photos. Hope the weather report for tomorrow is wrong. If not, perhaps a bit of birding from the cafe window tomorrow seeing all those lovely visitors to the bird feeder--lol!
TJ, Hazy and anyone else interested, have a look at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology All About Birds pages for more American Wigeon photos for comparison: https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/American_Wigeon/id . The left and right arrows will reveal pics from different times of year. Also if you enter American Wigeon in the gallery search box on www.surfbirds.com/searchimages.html you will see earlier snaps of other visiting American Wigeons.
Kind regards, Ann
Thanks so much Ann, the AW that was seen yesterday and digi-scoped and the same that had been seen by LM reserve staff/experts was very much like the drake in your link HERE and that's the one we were searching for this morning as it is pretty distinctive.
Good shots of the Spotted Redshank, especially considering the weather and a nice spot of the Golden Plover - I don't think I've seen one at LM before. I think my head hurts re the AW and whether or not it was a hybrid or nth generation or whatever!
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Nige Flickr
Very nice Hazel, I would still like to think it was an AW but if not it does look different, and you did well spotting the one legged Dunlin and the Spotshank, hope today is not as bad as they say it will be and hope you do manage to see the AW if you manage to get down to the salt marsh.
Jim
My Pictures
My Fbook Group
Despite the gale force winds and torrential heavy downpours I did manage a few photos; although there were hundreds of water fowl at the salt marshes the birds were all distant and hunkered down because of the gale force winds, however, one brave Spotted Redshank came close enough for some good photo ops - you had to be pretty brave to open the hide window LOL
We then went on to the main reserve but the weather was worsening, however, once we'd run the gauntlet of storm to get to the Causeway hide we were protected from the gales and torrential rain.
Shoveler drake
female Shoveler
There were a dozen Pintail ducks but most were distant ...........
Little Grebe
Mrs Mally
and her mate the drake who had his frisky way with her !
Most of the birds were busy preening or scratching !! Here's a shoveler and mallard
Grey Heron
There were 3 Marsh Harriers, 2 x female and 1 x male - hard cropped photo of one of the females resting in the reeds .........
then she took off again ....
A snipe flew in to the near island in front of the hide
and three lapwings; here are two of them together .....
Here are a few pics from the other day when Jason was here; Jason and Mike on the boardwalk and Jason feeding a robin but those were taken on the iPhone so not the quality ................
and some territorial behaviour with two robins, one swaying and twittering whilst the other taunted him from the reeds LOL
thought Paul (MC) would like these !
and this was today taken from Lilian's Hide just before we ventured to Causeway !
Great photos Hazy, despite the awful weather this morning.
Regards, AnnaB
https://thesebootsrmade4walkin.blogspot.co.uk/
You did well getting all those Hazel, it sure was a wet one today hope it starts to buck up now sadly is tomorrow your last day :(