Waxwings at last!

Martin picked me up at 0700 and we made our way into deepest Hampshire to see the Great White Egret at Bickerley Common. As we parked on the Trailway car park I opened the car door and was serenaded by an unmistakeable trill - Waxwings. In somewhat subdued light we located at least three feeding on some berry bushes in an adjacent garden. Brighter weather was slowly coming in from the West so we took some rapid record shots at high ISO and decided to return after the Egret search. Unfortunately we didn't find the GWE but had distant views of the Glossy Ibis and a short visit by a Kingfisher. Water levels are receding in the Avon valley and it may be this that has caused the bird to relocate.

  On returning to the car park the Waxwings were still present and light conditions much improved  allowing us to expend gigabytes worth of pixels on some cracking looking birds. Final count was a definite six, possibly seven.

With spirits up we decided to visit Blashford lakes, after parking up we found the Tern Hide and scanned the lake to find a multitude of ducks and far in the distance three Goosanders, one male and two females. A single Yellow-legged Gull was swimming amongst the ducks but a close scan revealed nothing more exotic. On leaving the hide we had views of a Merlin harassing a Blackbird which in the end was too difficult for the Merlin and on giving up the chase, gave a close fly by. At the main visitor centre we were treated to a short glimpse of a Lesser Spotted Woodpecker high up in the trees. Visits to other hides around the lakes gave views of Bramblings, Bittern  and some fairly close Gadwall

At the final count we had spotted 55 species --- all in all a great days birding!

Lavington Plantation

With not a cloud in the sky I made my way via the back roads to Lavington. Overnight frosts had turned the roads, which are still suffering from all the run off from the recent rains, into a nightmare of ice. As I passed Burton Mill Pond I noticed that it is not frozen so not yet ideal for a Bittern watch.  Lavington was a picture, white on the ground but the weak sunshine had thawed up the bracken - rust red on white. The first thing I noticed was the highly mobile and vociferous flocks of Goldcrests busily working in the gorse. Unusually, having reached my favoured spot, I didn't set up the camera and in accordance with the Law of Sod, three Crossbills turned up immediately. Luckily I had rigged up the 400mm lens just in case anything turned up whilst walking through the plantation, so I managed a couple of records.



Juvenile Crossbill

 

 

 

There are still a few Holly berries left, the Fieldfares and Redwings having more or less cleaned up. I guess what remains may end up as Christmas decorations for some forager. I also found a Birch tree with a large amount of Hoof or Tinder Bracket fungus, Fomes fomentarius, this is the source of amadou, much prized by the 'Ray Mears' members of the community as tinder in firemaking, if they read this then I guess it won't be there much longer.

 

Definitely aptly named

Of course not missing one of Lavington's residents, calling away in the south west corner and staying just long enough to be snapped.

Great White Egret

 

The forecast for today was perfect, clear blue skies and light winds. So an early start heading west towards Ringwood to find the Great White Egret that has spent several months at Bickerley Common. I parked at the old railway line car park at the Verwood turn off, leaving a short walk over the main river and past several flooded fields. I arrived at the bridge over the Bickerley stream and in the early light had great views of the GWE  at about 100 yards distant. Slowly the bird closed to within 50 yards and the with the sun rising in a clear sky,  I gained some reasonable shots. A Grey Wagtail perched on the railings  just a few yards away, asking to be photographed - duly captured. Having got the GWE shots I scanned the floods and found the reported Glossy Ibis - very distant though, not even a decent record shot.

 

I arrived rather early

Displaying rings but not readable

 

Feeling very pleased with myself I decided to head up into the forest north of the A31, turning right at Blashford, and doing my best to ignore the pits I made my way to Cadnam Pond,which was, of course, devoid of birds. Out on the grass there were plenty of thrushes both Song and Mistle intermingled with Fieldfares. On to another location to check for reported Goosanders but unfortunately they had gone. However, Marsh Tits abounded and some of them were very obliging.

 

 

The next part of the plan was to be Walpole Park in Gosport to find Waldo the faithful returning Ring billed Gull, as I passed the Eastleigh junction of the M27 I remembered that there had been a report of a red top Goosander at the Lakeview Country Park and as this venue often throws up a Hawfinch it was a quick detour. As soon as I arrived I found the Goosander on Beach Lake and managed to record a few good shots, of the Hawfinch there was not a feather to be seen. So I returned home early, very satisfied with the results of half a day birding.

Hardy souls

Bullfinches

Following my visit to Pulborough Brooks yesterday I decided to revisit today to try to improve on my Bullfinch records. Any doubts I had regards my plan were soon dissolved by the posting, on SOS,  of a sighting of Waxwings just outside the visitor centre, a nod is as good as a wink. I arrived at the car park just before 0800 and the frantic wavings of a birder meant that the birds were present, unfortunately not for long, disturbed by Crows they departed around 0820 and were not seen again. Then the weather took a dramatic turn for the worse, heavy rain/sleet and a very chilly wind set in. However, I decided to hang around and after about an hour and a half things brightened up a bit. Martin had arrived, no doubt encouraged by the possibility of Waxwings, and as they had gone we made another attempt on the Lesser Spotted Woodpecker all to no avail. Martin departed and I stayed hunting Bullfinches. The males were almost obliging but any females remained very reticent about breaking cover. I notice that several specimens were showing what appeared to be symptoms of the papilloma virus.

Full supporting cast of the usual suspects:

Out and About

With the weather forecast of dry weather until early afternoon I decided to see if I could find the reported Goosander at Petworth Park. So, in cold and frosty conditions, I arrived at the small pond to find it more or less frozen over. With only a small triangle of open water the resident Mallards were looking really miserable. No sign of any Goosander and one of the Egyptian Geese that frequent the area had left the pond and was extremely reluctant to return. Then Martin hove into view and we spent a half an hour trying to find something to fill up the pixels. Andrew House passed by and reported a no show on the large lake, which was frozen also. So it was off to Pulborough Brooks with a possible chance of a Brambling, reported to be using the feeders at the main entrance - zilch found. Eventually, after a bacon baguette and a hot steaming cup of tea we made our  way down to Fattengates to try to locate the Lesser Spotted Woodpecker that had been seen just five minutes previously. However, we couldn't pass up the chance of a Bullfinch or two and an obliging Wren on the zig-zag, thus arriving at the courtyard after the LSW had departed. Such is life!