Water Voles II

The weather picked up in the afternoon and I fooled myself into visiting the site of the old cement works in Shoreham. Someone had reported Long-tailed Blue on the Everlasting Sweet Peas that abound in this area. When I arrived I was appalled at the condition of the site, it appeared for all the world that a herd of buffalo had been through the area, everything was trampled down. The desire to see a rarity overwhelming good manners.

So with the sun up I decided to re-visit the Water Voles at Arundel, no apologies for posting more photographs of such a delightful animal. I think these are an improvement but the lighting in the vicinity is difficult, bright skies to the east and a fair tree canopy above. The late afternoon sunshine providing that hint of warmth if not a great depth of field.



 

Water Voles I

 

On a grey and damp day I couldn't muster enough enthusiasm to chase the Ring Ouzels again and following some excellent information from a fellow birder, I went in search of Water Voles. They are somewhat shy and full shots were hard to come by but I think they are in the right context when in the greenery, feeding away to their heart's content. Oddly, they remained oblivious of passers by and dog walkers but took exception to my camera shutter noise. Half a dozen apples helped entice one or two from their holes but next time I must have larger apples otherwise they grab the treat and disappear.

Watercress is good for you.

Not sure this is an aboreal tendency or Beaver in the genes

Whatever - he had eaten the best part of 2 feet of bark

Suckers for a bit of apple

Maybe  - but I don't trust you.

 

North Wall

A mid-morning start at the North Wall today, where I found "Ratty" to be still resident in the sluice. The very low water levels mean that it is difficult for him to jump out of the water next to the metal pilings, it took at least three attempts before he finally made the safety of the bank. I also flushed a Kingfisher from the sluice gate but despite a long wait he never returned. On the pool there were few birds, Redshank, Common Sandpiper, Green Sandpiper, Snipe, Spotted Redshank and several Lapwings.  

 Today was an attempt to obtain better shots of the Green Sandpipers - not entirely successful as the bird was somewhat sensitive to our loud chatter.

Two unusual birds flew in, I had no idea what they were, dark with white wing patches, further investigation revealed they are the itinerant Cape Shelducks that Trevor reported on his blog yesterday 



For comparison  - a pair in WWT Arundel



Two fine drakes

Really nice to catch up with Trevor and Ian, I suspect we did more gassing than birding but a least we put the world to rights.  


A quick visit to the flooded field gave Green Sandpiper and a lone Greenshank amongst other, more usual, suspects


All in all a slow but still enjoyable day