Mandarin Ducks and others

I only walked away for a couple of minutes but I missed the Lesser Spotted Woodpecker, a bird that has been on my hit list for a long time.

We had travelled down to the New Forest in the hope of seeing the Lesser Spotted and initially things looked very promising. It or possibly both of them were very mobile but we could hear the drumming and it seemed as though we could track it back to the individual trees it was using. However, each time we found a tree and stood at the bottom searching for movement we came up empty handed and the bird would suddenly start up again fifty or sixty yards away.

After about an hour and a half of this we ended up back in the car park talking to a couple of other birders. The drumming had stopped so I decided to wander off and take a few photographs of a Tawny Owl that was resident close by. It's usually hidden behind branches so you never get good pictures but it's always worth a look. Bad move, I was only a couple of minutes from the car park when I had a call from Dave to say that the Lesser Spotted had just flown over them. Mission drift, how many times does it happen. I had come for the Lesser Spotted and that is all I should have been looking for.

I raced back to the car park but it was gone. Dave had only gotten a few seconds view but it was enough for all three of them to confirm the sighting. We looked but the bird was nowhere to be seen and the drumming did not start up again. I suppose you have to look on the positive side. We do at least know where to look and the next couple of months will give the best opportunities for sightings and possibly even a photograph.

So what of the rest of the day. Well I did get pictures of the Tawny Owl.

Tawny Owl

There were large Chaffinch flocks around as well but we could not see any signs of Bramblings flying with them.

After a time we decided to move onto Eyworth Pond. The hope was that the pond would still be frozen over and that the resident Mandarins would be out on the ice instead of hiding away under the bushes on the far bank. It looked good when we first arrived. There was only one area of open water and all the Mandarins were crowded around it. There was plenty to look at and some great views but picture wise it was difficult to frame any decent shots. I counted sixteen of them but most of the pictures just turned out to be a jumble of colours and shapes. Some of the more acceptable ones are shown below.

There were also a pair of Gadwall on the ice

Gadwall

The female seemed quite sure footed but the male spent most of his time sitting down

Eyworth Pond is also a good place to photograph the smaller birds. They are fed regularly and are not worried about people being close but do remember to take some bird food if you go.

Marsh Tit

Marsh Tit

Nuthatch

Coal Tit

The Coal Tit was just a bit too fast for me although I eventually managed to get the picture above but this Long-tailed Tit seemed happy to hang around eating its seed whilst I took pictures.

Long-tailed Tit

There were also three Muscovy Ducks cleaning up any dropped food and seeming to have intimate conversations gently hissing at each other.

Muscovys  - perhaps not the prettiest of ducks but there looks to be some character there

I wonder how many of these there are living and breeding in the wild. They are South American in origin and are not migratory so any out in the wild are escapees or descendants of such. Reading up on them they are meant to be great farmyard ducks and do not need their wings clipped as they do not wonder far from home. I think somebody forgot to tell the ducks! They are also meant to be some of the finest meat available from any animal or bird so their population in the wild is likely to be well controlled.

We then headed down to Blashford Lakes to see if there were any Redpolls or Siskin about. Siskin there were although we could not get any pictures. Why they have hides with windows that do not open and others that have blue glass in them I have never really understood.

There were other unusual birds around.

Perhaps they were expecting a visit from the "Next Generation Birders"

By early afternoon the light had started to go. We called back into the car park and had one final look for the Lesser Spotted Woodpecker but there was no sign of it. There was a nice Goldcrest hunting close by but the light was too low for a picture so we decided to head for home.

On the way out of the forest we had one more stroke of luck. Dave spotted a bird sitting out on top of a small tree. I stopped the car and we reversed back for a closer look. We were really pleased to find a pair of Crossbills, there have not been many reported so far this year. The light was low and they were a long way off but any record shot of these birds is worth having.

Overall, a great days birding. I missed the Lesser Spotted Woodpecker but then that leaves me something for another day. Dave might have seen it but he didn't get a picture so I know he will be keen to go back and have another go.

Franklin's Gull

For me, Friday of last week was not a good birding day. We had travelled down to Blashford Lakes to see the Franklin's Gull. It was there and was easy to see, albeit after a long wait and hours of searching the thousands of gulls coming in to roost. Easy that is for everyone in the hide except me. I just could not get onto it. Even looking through Dave's scope which was centred on the bird I could not see anything that I could recognise as the Franklin's. I think by then I was just brain dead from staring at gulls.

There were distant views of Goosanders, Egyptian Geese, Ruddy Duck, and Black-necked Grebe but my only pictures for the day were of a Little Grebe and a Coot doing its leg stretching exercises. Going home in the car Dave was doing his best not to sound too happy whilst I tried to come to terms with my total failure.

Little Grebe

Coot

At first I was a bit negative about going back for another try but Dave convinced me that I should give it another go and volunteered to come along with me to ensure that I did not dip it for a second time.

We did a bit of birding around the New Forest before heading to Blashford. It was all very quiet. We followed a Chaffinch flock for a while in the hope of seeing a Brambling but there was nothing we could be confident about. We also managed to catch up with an old friend that we had last photographed back in February.

Tawny Owl

On arrival at Blashford we found that the Tern Hide that we planned to use was to be shut between 3.30 an 4.30 for a gull roost event. The Goosander Hide had also been closed by the police as a result of an incident. This only left us with the Lapwing Hide. You get good views out over the lake from there but by 3.30 when the gulls would be arriving you are staring straight into the sun. Still we had no choice so Lapwing Hide it was.

We settled down to an afternoons gull watching with a couple of Green and one Common Sandpiper thrown in for a bit of variety.

Green Sandpiper

The only other item of note was a flock of thirty eight Herons that came in to roost late afternoon. This was the first time I had seen them in a large flock. Other than that it was a long afternoon and by the time the sun started to set at 4.15 no one in the hide had spotted the Franklin's. Then we had a call from the Tern Hide to say that it had been spotted and that it was close to us. It turned out to be directly in the path of the setting sun but as it dipped below the horizon we had a few minutes of light left and everyone in the hide, including me this time, managed to get good views.

I had already lost sight of the bird in the gathering gloom when I decided that I should try to get a picture of it. By then I could not see where it was so I just pointed in the general direction, wound up the ISO, fired off a few shots and hoped for the best. They are not brilliant but these are my record shots of the bird.

 Just a few of the gulls on the lake with the Franklin's arrowed

Heavy cropping but the white eye rings and darker mantle are just visible.

And, to finish off the day, we had a starling murmuration swirling over our heads as we walked back to the car.

Green-winged Teal

Seen but unfortunately not photographed.

We were down in Hampshire at Sopley Cemetery overlooking the flooded fields around the river Avon. The Green-winged Teal was the main target of the day and at first it looked like an impossible task. There were probably more than a thousand teal spread out over the water in front of us and they were all very distant. You could not pick out the distinguishing features using binoculars so it fell to a tedious inspection of each individual bird using a scope. Perhaps not too difficult if they are all lined up giving a side view but not so easy when they are all milling about and often have their backs to you.

So what were we looking for. Well, at the distance we had, the only thing you can really pick out is the vertical stripe in place of the horizontal stripe on the common teal.  Fortunately Dave likes to get stuck into these difficult tasks and eventually he found it. He managed to get a couple of other birders onto it but I just could not see it. I was 99% sure I had the right bird but it had its back to me and I could not make the identification. After a long wait and with my eyes streaming from the cold and my refusal to blink in case I missed it, the bird turned and I had a clear view of the vertical stripe. Life Tick.

Unfortunately the rest of the day turned out to be a bit of a disappointment. We went to Blashford lakes. We found the housing estate and the hole in the fence through which if you were lucky you could get a distant view of the Ferruginous Duck. But it felt more like voyerism than birding so we quickly abandoned that search.

Blashford always looks promising but the wildfowl is usually distant, very few of the windows in the hides open, and one of the hides uses blue tinted plastic for the windows. On top of that the light was going. Not ideal for taking pictures.

Coal Tit

Great Tit

Siskin

Juvenile Siskin

 

A few shots of the usual suspects and we moved on to the Eyworth Pond at Fritham. There are usually Mandarin Ducks at this site but they can be difficult to find. After a bit of searching we thought we had five or six hidden deep in the bushes on the far side of the pond. It was only when they were spooked and took to the air that we realised that there were between twenty and thirty present.

Mandarin Duck

This is also a good site to see the smaller birds. A few handfuls of bird food on the fence posts and the bushes were alive with half tame birds. Good for photographs but nearly as bad as having shots of them on feeders.

Blackbird

Blue Tit

Chaffinch

Marsh Tit

Nuthatch

Real manners - sitting down for lunch

To finish off the day we drove along the Warningcamp road to see if the Bewicks had returned to their usual feeding ground. No sign of them but I did manage to pick up a Red Kite and Grey Partridge as year ticks. I think we probably had Corn Bunting as well but in the fading light it was difficult to be sure.

Grey Partridges