Anyway... In the past, my meetings with wild Smew have always had a degree of similarity in that they have always been on the far side of a large lake. I don't know how they work out which the far side is, but they do. It was a real surprise therefore to hear of a Smew in Romsey on the river alongside a public footpath. She didn't take much finding and nor for that matter a rather handsome Kingfisher in an apple tree!
How odd to find Sawbill in such an urban location (let alone two different varieties as Goosander were here too, of which more later). The grey day didn't give the best photographic opportunities, especially with the overhanging trees, but I took some shots for the record.
All Sawbills fish for a living, their serrated bills seemingly applying a very secure grip on their otherwise slippery suppers. This one certainly took fishing seriously and appears quite good at it from what I can see, and it packed away at least 4 good size fish while I was there. This is the mechanics of the dive :-
6.0 6.0 5.9 6.0 6.0 with a degree of difficulty of 3.7
And this is how to swallow a slippery squirming dinner :-
There were a few occasions while photographing here that I thought the bill of this bird looked a bit odd, but it wasn't until I looked at the photos that I realised there was quite a bad crack to base of the lower left and a split near the tip. I determined to keep a close eye on her over the next ... however long it stayed... to make sure she was doing okay.
For birds which spend all their time in or under water, keeping plumage in good order is vitally important, and so it was good to see that any bill damage wasn't stopping this one preening as normal
Of course all this activity is very tiring and we all feel the need for 40 winks now and again. The trouble is, a quick nap floating on the Test can mean waking up not quite where you started...
...much safer to clamber out for a while
edit: (I checked on her last today 07-02-11 and she is still doing well)
No comments:
Post a Comment