A long weekend

Judith is away on a conference in Mexico so I had two days free to do a bit of birding. Shame it's not late October or late April with lots of rares appearing on transatlantic lows but hey, lets make the best of it!
Saturday I swung down to the west country. The journey was good with even some snowy scenes as I went over the (relatively) high ground heading to Somerset.
First stop was a new reserve for me, Ashleworth near Gloucester for a green-winged teal. I spent about 3 hours there scanning about 500 eurasian teal without finding my target. There was about 50 pintail though, probably the largest number I've seen in one place which was nice. I gave up just before lunch and headed off for target two, long staying penduline tits on a small pit called Horsebere pool on the edge of Gloucester itself. These use to be my bogey birds, it took me about 3 years of trying to find my first one, but now they seem to be if not exactly more common at least easier to find. This pit was a very small one, and I met up with three other birders who had been with me not seeing the green-winged teal!

It's not the best photo in the world, but you can see one of the two males present feeding on the red mace heads. I gave it about 30 minutes and they weren't playing ball by coming in close so I moved to my last target, a ring-necked duck at Ham Wall near Glastonbury, about an hours drive away. I'd been there last year for the Hudsonian Godwit so I was hoping to be as successful.
Talking to the man in the RSPB hut it was showing well, so a 10 minute walk and I was in the middle of the reed bed and there were lots of ducks.

The first hide I tried had the rnd showing week, albeit looking straight into the sun so photos proved a bit tricky!!
They are superficially like a tufted duck crossed with a scaup. At distance they are a black and white diving duck but with a characteristic light-grey not white side and markings on their bill. What they don't have is a ring on their neck - and no tuft!!

These two give you an idea of the differences compared to the tufties it was making friend with.
I watched it for about 30 minutes, it seemed quite happy pottering about in the reeds!!

The only other bird of note was a bittern booming away in the reeds which was nice - Ham Wall is very good for them.
Sunday I decided to go North, following the maxim of always go tho rarest bird, which in this case was a long-billed dowitcher at Rutland water north of Peterborough. It is one of those reserves where you have to pay entrance, but I suppose £5 is a reasonable price!!!
A 15 minute walk got me to "shoveler hide" where the bird had been seen most days. When I arrive it had been seen about 20 minutes before but now was hiding. The 6 of us in the hide waited about another 20 minutes before it pottered into view.

 As you can see, it was some way away!!

Gradually it showed itself a bit better. Dowitchers are medium sized waders, a bit larger than a redshank but smaller than a godwit. They are quite dull in plumage, basically grey, but lighter underneath with a long-bill (as opposed to the short-billed dowitcher!) and a nice eye-stripe.
Over the next half-hour it pouter about feeding quite happily but showing no sign of wanting to move closer.

It's still in that quite quiet time so there wasn't much else around, but the shelducks were looking quite smart and the black-headed gulls were getting territorial!

I managed to find a red-necked grebe to add to my year-list on the north arm of the reservoir as well before heading back home. A decent haul in quality of birds with Spring migration coming up!!!

A weekend at the Lodge

Rather than disappear off for the birds I let them come to me this weekend. Nothing that exotic but  both Saturday and Sunday morning down Maple Lodge did yield one or two nice birds.

Saturday morning was the work party but I had about an hour wandering around first. It was pretty bleak and cold and definitely not spring like. Sunday was with Judith and the weather was a bit brighter but still pretty cold.

There were good numbers of redwings in the plantation area feeding up before they start their journey back up North.

The reed bed on Sunday was looking nice in the weak sunshine but it will be a few weeks yet till it resounds to the songs of the reed and sedge warblers.

The only birds showing any signs of active it was this wren from Rotunda hide enjoying the sun on Sunday.

There isn't much sign of colour yet, a few primroses around but the only flowers were a few trees with blossom and some clumps of snowdrops, these ones being in the band owl meadow.

The main action on both days though was from the Clubhouse his, with lots of visit to the bird feeders, even from coots and moorhens.

The feeders themselves had a steady stream of birds. Nothing rare or unusual but nice to see all the same.

The light on Sunday was much better especially for this female chaffinch.

 The great spotted woodpeckers always give a lovely splash of colour when they come in to the nuts. 

They're even nicer when you can get them against a more natural background though.

One of my favourite though are the long-tailed tits. They always seem to have "attitude" and their calls when they come along in their flocks are joyful!

Elsewhere the goldcrests were busy in the conifers, there were at least two pairs of treecreepers showing well, over 30 wigeon were on Lynsters lake and both little and great-crested grebes were showing amorous signs opposite Long Hedge hide.

Fudge-tastic

There were a couple of birds local to me which were just crying out to be twitched, so who was I to turn them down.
The first was the over-wintering hawfinches at Bramfield. Normally two but up to 5 have been present for some weeks now. These are exotic finches, looking like a chaffinch on steroids. They are much larger and have beak more reminiscent of parrots! They are uncommon but can be regular in their over wintering haunts. Normally I've gone down to Lakeside near Southampton to get them but these were much closer.
Bramfield is a small Hertfordshire village with a lovely old churchyard. The pollarded trees made it look a bit sparse on a cold morning!

After only a few minutes I spotted a large finch on the top of one of the trees at the back of the churchyard.

You can just about make out the large bill on this smart male. Over the next half hour the two birds flew between the churchyard and the nearby rectory but never really stayed out in the open!

With the morning moving on I left Bramfield and headed off towards Milton Keynes for another bird I get most years but is not exactly common. This one was a ferruginous duck. It is well named in that the males are definitely rust coloured! Again they can be quite loyal to areas including one near Blashford which gives ridiculously awful views through a chain-link fence! This bird though was reported as being on an a lake by a housing estate so should have been easier. On getting there I quickly found a female red-crested pochard lurking near where I parked the car.

Of the ferruginous duck though there was no sign. One local had been there for 3 hours already so it was definitely not around. Two days before though it had done this and had hopped about half a mile away to another lake. So, I too hopped into my car and drove about a mile and half to a pub car park by a lake. 

Almost immediately I spotted a group of about half a dozen tufted ducks and with them was another duck with a white bum and a very bright eye.

Along with the eye and the bum there was that beautiful rich rust colour as well.

I watched it for about 30 minutes as it drifted around looking quite happy and contented.What was so nice was that I was the only birder and the views were by far the best I've ever had for this species.

 With lunchtime approaching and the fudge duck going to sleep I left to move on to Amwell to see if I could find any gulls.

By the time I got there it was getting quite cold and windy. The reserve was looking empty of both birds and birders. I did manage to find the female smew lurking at the back on one of the islands.

I was mainly though trying to find yellow-legged gulls in the roost. There were lots of common and black-headed gulls as well as some larger ones, mainly lesser black-backed, herring and a couple of greater black-backed. I finally though managed to get onto one bird with a mantle between herring and lesser black-backed and a very clear bright white head. This pointed to a yellow-legged but I'm not confident enough to i'd it just from that.

It though start vigorously preening in the water and I clinched it with a shot of yellow on its legs as it came out of the water.

Honestly, you can make it out!!

You can make out the intergrade mantle colour and see its clear white head on the other photos.

Other than that there was a very brief view of the long-staying bearded tit before I gave up and headed back home.

Three nice birds with the fudge duck being probably the star of the year so far!