Eyeworth Mandarins

I hadn't much room on my camera card left and I had stretched my legs in the woods after hearing what I was pretty sure was a Lesser spotted Woodpecker drumming not so very far from the path. I coudn't find it and it stopped not long after I headed towards it. I headed back and got some bread and seed to fulfill that age old amusement in feeding the ducks (Mallards) and Geese (Canada) and to see if anything other than the expected Marsh Tit, Blue Tit, Great Tit, Chaffinch and Nuthatches would come down to feed on the gateposts.
The Mallards and Mallard crosses followed me up to hoover up any spilt seed, but I didn't expect in the melee for the normally more timid Mandarins to fly straight onto the gate to give me my best ever views of these extraordinary creatures.
I'm just going to post the photos of this cacophony of colour and bizarre design that is the Mandarin Duck, they are beyond words.
 

 

 

  

I can't help thinking that the artist who first painted these birds would be a bit annoyed that he or she didn't varnish them better below the water line. However, criticism is a little futile, even unacceptable

  

  

  

 

What a fortuitous coincidence to find both Goosander and Mandarins on the same pond, both the most unlikely waterbirds to nest in holes in trees, and both fascinating and beautiful in different ways. What a lovely morning,

Eyeworth Goosanders

When I rolled up at Eyeworth yesterday morning, I was wondering whether the Goosanders would be there again or whether they would have moved on. Given the sunny but cold weather forecast which wasn't too far off, I wasn't too surprised to find some very large lenses indeed focussing over the pond. I sat in the car as a mobile hide as was de rigeur and watched, by coincidence, 21 Goosanders going about there business. I say by coincidence because this was the same number as I had seen previously, but this time there were 6 adult drakes, so they weren't all the same birds as previously. As last time, they generally stayed a little bit far away for my lens, I couldn't get the best spot, and I discovered photography envy for the first time. Actually thats an exaggeration, it wasn't the first time at all.
Within a few minutes I forgot all about that as I watched all sorts of things I hadn't seen before about Goosander behaviour, the generally good light affording really good views through binoculars.
Like a true ameteur, I took probably a hundred photographs, very few of which turned out how I thought they might.
The drakes performed textbook behaviour, raising their crests every time they passed eachother to form that ridiculously neanderthal profile which entertained me no end.

Sometimes they just seemed to put their crests up for no particular reason, which indeed, I might if I could.

The fishing didn't seem particularly coordinated on the whole, and yet more was going on than I understood as when one bird dived, it was frequently followed by other birds in the vicinity despite their seeming disinterest in such activities moments before. It didn't seem particularly pre-planned, but it did seem effective as I saw more catched made than on my previous visit. Catches usually induced quite an excitement around birds close to the successful fisher and lots of running away as quickly as possible, and rather hurried swallowing. All the fish caught that I could identify were Perch, and pretty fat ones considering the time of year, at between 8-16oz (guesstimate).

 

  

 

Although there was a lot of interaction going on between individuals, only some of which I was palpably aware of, one little scene quite astonished me was this sunken female that concerned me for around a minute.

 

After what seemed an age, a drake surfaced next to her, but she continued to remain submerged next to him

 

 before eventually paddling in toe behind in a less drowning, but equally reverential pose.

 

Within a few moments they split up and that was that. The drake didn't appear to have any response or interest in the procedures and I am left to guess what it was all about.

 

I hoped that at some point individuals may come a little closer, and just on odd occasions they did following dives in my direction and quick paddling away. They were few and far between and always drakes, but magical moments to me

 

 

Quite a magical morning with these secretive and shy birds, but it wasn't all over yet.

Harbridge revisited (again)

I had to be up at the crack of dawn this morning, actually, rather earlier, and having got my chore out of the way I decided to go early down to Harbridge to photograph the Great White Egret which was bound to be there. It was a beautiful morning, albeit frosty and I left full of optimism. When I arrived the steady northerly wind soon warned me to add hat and gloves to my existing layers and I stood around counting the 8 Bewick Swans which turned into 13, and 17 Greylag geese which turned into 8 as 9 flew off southwards.

 

Shortly afterwards, in the distance, while I was trying to turn some of the Greylags into Bean Geese, a flock of 69 of what I first thought were probably Lapwings but with binoculars proved to be Black Tailed Godwits wheeled around mesmerically and entertained me for a few seconds. My immiediate thought of Lapwings was probably just because I had seen a similar size flock here a couple of days ago and complacency slipped in. I'm blaming the numbing cold whatever anyone says.

After a short time (which seemed like a long time) I felt something behind me, you know that feeling of when there is something dangerous behind you and it won't go away unless you turn round and it isn't there? Like that, only without the dangerous. So of course I turned round, but on the other side of the road there was just a Mute Swan. I crossed the road anyway and WAIT.... is that an Egret behind the reeds??

Of course my sixth sense that had led me turn round told me it was the Great White Egret I'd come to look for. How fortuitous...

 

...It wasn't. Nevermind, Little Egrets are always good to see, I am always mindful that however great their success here over the last couple of decades, their failure could be no further away, and they should never be taken for granted. I watched it fly past very close and was felt grateful for the sight.

 

After a short while longer with nothing much else turning up, I decided I was too cold and would move on, During a short chat with a very nice woman (with binoculars) in a lorry who had parked up behind me, a male Kestrel found something of interest quite close, and despite a drop to the floor, came up with nothing. All that energy wasted!

 

  

  

 

I gave up after this and thought as it was still early, I'd head off to Eyeworth and see if the Goosanders were back, I will leave that until tomorrow though because I saw something which may be commonplace there, but I thought extraordinary.

Out and about - Eyeworth

I had to pop down to Poole today on a delivery run and as usual spent ten minutes on Hatch Pond just having a look, but nothing exciting other than a pair of Great crested Grebes displaying, mirroring each other perfectly in every single movement. I don't know how they do that, down to every single shake of the head, not a millisecond apart. Fabulous. On the drive back I decided to have yet another go at Harbridge for the Great White Egret and yet again didn't see one, though my disappointment was tempered by seeing Bewick Swans much closer there  than previously. Eight in total, four adults and four juveniles. The wind and frozen rain meant my limited time there was grateful and I headed homeward, but nagging on my mind was the thought of disappearing off the radar and taking a detour to Eyeworth. Which I did.
Until recent years Goosanders have been one of my bogey birds, ones I should have seen easily but somehow always missed. Suddenly I seem to see them everywhere and Eyeworth was no exception with no less than at least 21 there on what equates to a largish village pond in the New Forest.
I am told these are probably some of the flock from Blashford who just come to feed on the apparently fish rich pond but don't roost there, though I can't be certain. The time I spent there certainly confirmed they were largely busy fishing. Its not a huge pond but there is room for any wildfowl to remain difficult to photograph in dark grey conditions such as they were today, however, I did what I thought I could do and will leave the photos to speak for themselves.

Ok, I'm not entirely going to let them speak for themselves, I'm going to interrupt briefly. I've often wondered why diving ducks (I know they aren't ducks they are Sawbills, but they are still duck-like)) frequently seem to slope into the water towards the tail. I hope the next three pictures, particularly the last one, explain this to anyone looking as much as they do to me..

I hope the last picture shows quite what a downward force is exerted by the tail feathers which never totally leave the surface and wouldn't work if they were cocked up. I'm sure this isn't new to science, but its new to me, and sad as it maybe, made my day.

Cold

No. It has not been especially cold, indeed it has been near average temperatures for the time of year.
But I have one. Not an average temperature, but a cold. And largely it has stopped me going out for anything other than Lemsips.
Of course I have been looking out of the window and noting what has been going on with my feathered friends from time to time although not with a camera. I posted the above from a year or so ago in the back garden (taken with a compact camera) just because this morning I heard a thump on the window and some shrill squealing, so rushed out to the conservatory, opened the door, and nearly accidentally trod on a Sparrowhawk which in turn was treading rather more deliberately on a male Blackbird. It hopped off over the wall with its breakfast and I went back in to make a bacon sandwich and muse over the beauty and cruelty of nature. Hmm.
This was the closest I have been to a wild Sparrowhawk (a male this time as opposed to the female in the picture) although they are irregular but not infrequent visitors to my birdtable and its environs. What is interesting about their hunting habits here is that although I have on a couple of occasions seen them hit Collared doves over the stream (which is a bit like seeing an exocet missile hit a feather pillow with a very audible thud) nearly every time I have witnessed an attack it involves a collision, usually with a window, in which they do not always come off best. My guess is that as they close in on their prey in a chase, they reach a "lock" where it doesn't really matter how suicidal an attempt of the prey to escape is, they are going to hit it anyway. I have thought this before when years ago seeing a Blackbird flying over a hedge and straight at the side of a house with a male Sparrowhawk in close pursuit. A brilliant last second 90 degree turn by the Blackbird left the Sparrowhawk staring at a very fast approaching faceful of bricks and mortar which it just managed to bounce of lightly as it turned upwards a fraction too late.
I did the RSPB Big Garden Birdwatch last weekend, in fact I did it on both saturday and sunday to see what the difference would be. As it turned out, it wasn't enormous, although differences in the two lists included Nuthatches, Treecreeper, Bullfinches, Black Headed Gulls, Crows, Magpies, Jackdaw and Great Spotted Woodpecker. I haven't as yet sent in either of these records in case any of species find themselves on an RSPB hit list.