Ring-necked Duck

 

We travelled up to Essex on Thursday and as we had time in hand I thought Sue might be interested to stop off at Priory Park in Reigate. It is a place we had not visited before. Coincidence then 😇 that walking round the pond I spotted an unusual duck which on closer inspection turned out to be a female Ring-necked Duck. It was also fortunate that I had decided to carry my camera.

Ring-necked Duck

A walk around Hornchurch Country Park later in the day gave a good assortment of Gulls, Ducks, and Geese. I was pleased to see a few Egyptian Geese, my first for the year. However, getting a picture for the blog proved a bit difficult, as when I reached into my bag for my camera, it seemed as if every bird in the park came rushing over for a free feed.

Egyptian Goose

Not a bad day then, two year ticks when I had not been expecting to see any birds.

Hoopoe

 

Just a quick blog to record a couple of the more unusual year ticks, a Hoopoe and a Ring-necked Duck. Both also memorable as it is the first time I have seen them in Sussex

The Hoopoe was to be found in Bazehill Rd, Balsdean within a few yards of where we had excellent picture opportunities with a Red-backed Shrike back in 2013. It is difficult to believe that it was that long ago.

Unfortunately the Hoopoe wasn't quite as obliging and I couldn't stay for long but it was nice to get a record shot. The one with the crest erect will have to wait until the next opportunity.

Hoopoe

The Ring-necked Duck was to be found on the Honer Reservoir near Pagham a week or so ago. The Reservoir, which is not named on the map, is for field irrigation on the Honer Farm. It is of earth construction lined with some sort of waterproof membrane and can be approached from a footpath at the end of Summer Lane Pagham or from a footpath (often waterlogged) from the North Wall.

It doesn't sound much but has delivered a few good birds since it's construction, including a Long-tailed Duck a couple of years ago.

Ring-necked Duck

To complete the Blog, as I haven't used the picture before, a Black-tailed Godwit just coming into summer plumage. In a couple of weeks time it will look truly stunning.

Ring-necked Duck

The last few weeks have failed to deliver any good bird photography opportunities and very few good birds. There have been one or two in the area migrating through but they have not stayed long and I have failed to connect with most of them. Meanwhile my birding buddy Dave has been off in Tenerife filling his memory cards with Blue Chaffinch and other endemics (see here).

All a bit depressing really. So today I decided on a trip down to Dungeness with the main target the Garganey reported on Cook's Pool. "Should have been here yesterday" - there was no sign of the Garganey all day. However, I did get some decent views of the Ring-necked Duck. I had taken pictures of it in January and had seen it a couple of times since but it had always been distant. This time it was close to the front edge of the pool.

Ring-necked Duck

I then set off on a walk around the RSPB Reserve searching all the pools and headgerows. Lots of birds but nothing unusual and all a bit distant. Although from the reports there was an Osprey through just after I left the area.


I did think about going down the the lighthouse area to look for Black Redstarts but in the end decided to spend the afternoon at Rye Harbour. A chance for a nice long walk and some more very distant birds. It is clearly the place to go if you like Black-headed Gulls but there were also good numbers of Mediterranean Gulls, Avocets, and Ringed Plover amongst the other birds. It's strange how we just take Avocets for granted these days but they are a really elegant bird.

Avocets

Skylark

Black Redstarts seem to have been around in good numbers this year. The bird below was taken in the churchyard at Church Norton.

And a Long-tailed Tit, always nice to photograph.

All a bit quiet really. I am begining to remember why I always look forward to the start of the Butterfly and Dragonfly seasons.

Ring-necked Duck

The new year always brings a new excitement to the birding. Standing in the kitchen window, as the sun comes up on New Years Day, waiting for that first year tick. Then two or three days of rushing around trying to find all those birds that you have ignored for the rest of the year. It is almost as bad as twitching but it is difficult not to get sucked in.

New Years Day always used to be a trip down to Gosport to say hello to Waldo the Ring-billed Gull. He had been returning there for so long that you always felt that you needed to get him early in the year just in case he died of old age. Now he is no longer there, the day seems strangely empty.

In memory of Waldo

Anyway Dave and I entered into the usual tick gathering exercise. Bird numbers seen were reasonable but picture opportunities were very limited. We saw the eight Cattle Egrets in the fields at Warblington. Great to see but not much chance of a good picture.

Cattle Egret

Pagham Harbour had the birds but again all very distant. The best picture opportunity being this Curlew with crab.

Curlew and crab

We had a trip down to Dungeness that proved a bit disappointing. The Long-eared Owl was not in its usual roost and we wasted hours in searching for the Stejneger's Stonechat. Dave eventually got a distant glimpse but I must have been the only person there that did not get to see it.

A Stonechat but not the Stejneger's

Best bird of the day for me was the Ring-necked Duck on the pond just by the entrance to the RSPB at Bolderwall Farm. This is the first Drake that I have seen.

Ring-necked Duck

and Kestrels everywhere

Glaucous Gull

I finally caught up with the juvenile Glaucous Gull late afternoon on Thursday on what was my fourth attempt. Even in a field full of Gulls it was easy to pick out. It is nearly as large as a Great Black-backed Gull and has a very pale white and ochrous-brown mottled effect colouration. The bill is also distinctive being large and pink with just the end being clearly demarcated in a dark brown/black colour.

Glaucous Gull

Size comparison with Black-headed Gulls

Glaucous Gull - as seen for most of the time

See my blog of March 2013 for pictures of an adult Glaucous Gull at Dungeness.

Other birds present on the gull roost in addition to various gulls were Dunlin, Ringed Plover and Grey Plover.

Dunlin at roost

Dunlin

Ringed Plover

Earlier in the day we had paid a return visit to Rooksbury Mill and Pinglestone Watercress beds. With the weather bright and clear we had hoped to improve on the picture of the Ring-necked Ducks  we had taken on the mill pond early in December. The ducks were still present, the weather was perfect, but unfortunately the ducks were still wary and kept there distance so I came away with no real improvement on the pictures I had taken previously.

Ring-necked Ducks

Ring-necked Ducks

Other ducks on the Mill Pond were more obliging. Male and female Gadwall came close as did an assortment of Tufted ducks.

Gadwall

Gadwall Female

Tufted Duck

All with the ever present Heron keeping a watch over them.

Grey Heron

The visit to the watercress beds also prove a little frustrating. We saw Green Sandpiper and Grey Wagtails along with a lot of Little Egrets but they were all too distant for photographs. The real targets of the visit had been Water Pipits. Did we see them? Well maybe, there were two pipits, light in colour, pinkish legs, white underneath, and at least one with a bright supercilium. They looked good but we couldn't be sure, so this year tick will have to wait for another day.

A good days birding and in nice weather conditions for a change and it was particularly pleasing to finally catch up with the Glaucous Gull.

Ring-necked Duck

Tuesday, and we finally had a day that promised a break in the storms. Where to go? The wind was still strong and the light poor so the smaller birds would be in short supply. Widewater for the Mergansers was one possibility but in the end we decided to take a trip down to Rooksbury Mill near Andover, to have a look for the two juvenile Ring-necked Ducks that had been reported there.

We took the back roads avoiding the rush hour traffic and enjoying the last of the autumn colours. We had expected to have some difficulty in separating the juvenile Ring-necks, from the juvenile Tufted Ducks and had anticipated having to spend the morning trying to identify our targets. As it happened we had no problem. When we got to Mill Lake there was nothing there. No Ring-necks, no Tufties, just a couple of Moorhens, some Little Grebes and a few Swans.

We couldn't believe our luck. A quick search of the river and adjoining Brooks Lake at least gave us a few Tufted Ducks and Gadwalls but there was no sign of the Ring-necks. A local birder told us that they had been there on the previous evening but that they now appeared to have moved on. What to do next? it looked like a long trip for nothing.

Fortunately we decided to have one last look at Mill Lake on the way back to the car. It still looked empty but then, out in the middle, there was a disturbance as a couple of small ducks broke to the surface of the lake. A quick check with the bins and it was clear that we had our Ring-necked Ducks.

We watched them for a couple of hours, hoping that they would come closer and give us the chance of better pictures. They did move a bit when dog walkers came past but seemed determined to stay out in the open water in the centre of the lake. It was a bit disappointing but I can't really complain. We both had good record shots and a life tick, so it had to be counted as a good birding day.

We stopped off at a couple of watercress beds in the Meon Valley on the way home. These were new birding sites for us. We were hoping to see a Water Pipit but the conditions were deteriorating. There were birds there, including Pipits, but with the wind picking up, the birds were hunkering down and identification was not easy.

We did see Green Sandpipers, Grey Wagtails, Pied Wagtails, and Little Egrets.There were a couple of large dark Pipits but we could not be sure. The only positive identification we made was on a Meadow Pipit.

This Grey Wagtail was interesting. It was happily feeding in the watercress beds until a Sparrowhawk flew through. It then froze and stayed that way until about five minutes after the Sparrowhawk had disappeared. It's the first time that I have ever seen one without its tail wagging.


I came away from Rooksbury Mill with lots of pictures but they all look very similar. With both of us only getting decent shots of two birds I have a feeling that Dave's blog will look very similar to mine.