A female Goosander that had been reported in the early afternoon was still here, hauled out of the water on one of the tiny islands of the emerging spit. I also had my largest Pintail count to date as 9 birds flew out of the lake fringe into the centre of the lake when something unseen flushed the wildfowl towards dusk.
By the 4th, the spit had reappeared a little bit more and the sun was shining, so hopefully before long there will be some wader habitat back again. I had seen 10 Snipe at the weekend and today 11 birds were sunning themselves in the reed fringe - there could easily be more as they are often hidden. The Pintail were as elusive as ever, tucked away in the vegetation north of the spit in the NE side. I counted 3 pairs, but there were undoubtedly more unseen. A pair of Shelduck were still around, often in flight over the reed bed and possibly looking for suitable nest sites, which this isn't as there are foxes here. The flood meadows are dropping slowly, in fact after last weekend's rain, they rose by a couple of inches between Monday and Tuesday, so it is a slow process. Fieldfare are enjoying the exposed grass strip between the river and the flood with around 80 birds feeding away. A/the wintering Chiffchaff is often in song on the west side.
The 7th was fairly similar, however, when I arrived at 9am, a pair of Garganey were roosting on the spit. These are surely the birds seen last Friday and Saturday and the question is, have they remained here all week hidden away in vegetation away from seeking eyes, or have they found another locale to their liking and just popped in? I suspect the former, as they have been seen to disappear in to the long grass and tree roots for hours. Anyway, I managed a slightly better record than last week.
A walk to the meadow found the usual flock of BHG around the flood edge, but still no Med! I wandered back to the bench on the west side - I'd walked the whole circuit earlier in the week and the 5 or 6 large poplars on the southern bank that blew over in the winds a couple of weeks ago are still lying across the path making it very hard going, so I wasn't keen on this route again. There was an obvious passage of BHG, not big, but steady. Small flacks were flying in from the east, settling on the lake for 5 - 10 mins and continuing westwards, so I decided to sit on the bench and watch this movement, ever hopeful of picking up the year's first Med. No sooner had I started watching, when I noticed a black wing-tipped and clean headed gull sitting face on on the water in the far SW corner. It certainly wasn't a BHG and probably not a Common, I was hoping Kittiwake. I got it in the scope and indeed it was an adult Kittiwake - fantastic, a patch tick! Although white headed from the front, it was actually in full winter plumage still and was very dusky grey on the nape with a black ear covert patch. I took a very distant record shot, but fortunately it flew more to the SW side and I was able to get slightly better and closer shots
It seemed quite happy here, occasionally plucking insects from the water surface, until for no apparent reason, a Common Gull seemed to take exception to it and flew at it calling. So after about 15 mins on site, the Kittiwake took to the air and drifted off westwards never to be seen again.
Otherwise, 5 Shelduck were the only other birds of note, with no Pintail on view today from the west side.
No comments:
Post a Comment