Tundra

Yesterday I had a text off SP, letting me know that there was a Tundra Bean Goose amongst the Pink-Footed Goose flock at the Obelisk. So this morning I picked up SW at 09:00 and headed along to Holywell, MH had just pulled up as we arrived. We headed down, and thankfully the geese were there, 350+ Pink-Footed Geese. It took us some time to work our way through the flock in the dull conditions, but eventually MS spotted a likely candidate standing asleep, it soon revealed itself to be the Tundra Bean Goose. 

The surrounding Pink-Footed Geese provided a great comparison, as it slept it seemed to stand on longer legs, and as it moved closer the clean orange legs, and narrow tail band could clearly be seen, coupled with the orange subterminal bill band. Mike did his best to get some digi-scoped images, although the light was terrible !

Great find by SP !

Holywell

A full day of filming saw the morning start out at St Mary's for an hour or so, before the tide retreated and the wind began to pick up.


For the rest of the day I was on patch, between the Pond and the Dene. The pond was quiet as usual, although the NWT were working with chainsaws in the North Wood, 4 Tufted, a pair of Pochard, 2 Mute Swan, 4 Canada Geese, 1 Little Grebe, Moorhen, Mallard, Teal, 3 Gadwall and a lone Grey Heron were on the pond, with Brambling and Tree Sparrow in the feeding station.


The reeds reflecting in the warm light caught my eye from the members hide.




The main project for the day, in the Dene, was to film the Snowdrops. Pocketed up and down the burn, I quite enjoyed exploring the different patches of plants and their positioning.




The Dene seemed to be alive with song, with at least 3 Great Spotted Woodpeckers drumming. I've uploaded a short audio clip below, the microphone used wasn't ideal but I think its worked quite well, capturing the essence of the woodland, how I experienced it.





Heading back up to the pond as the light began to fade 2 Treecreepers amongst a Tit flock made an appearance, as did 3 Grey Wagtail on the burn. A pair of Shelduck were on the pond as I passed.




After tea I dropped my sister off at Cubs and headed back to Holywell, to photograph the stars. Passing the public hide the silhouettes of 300+ Geese could be seen, a mix of Greylag and Pink-Footed Geese could be heard. I've only ever seen the geese come to roost once, as it seems the majority of the time they arrived and leave in darkness. 


Generally once it gets dark you can walk anywhere, past the pond, through the dene and farmland and you'll not see a soul, but tonight I caught sight of a torch heading in my direction. It turned out that it was another photographer with the same idea!

East Pool

Went along to the pond for a break from writing up a documentary proposal this afternoon, started off at the members hide. On the pond there was 12 Tufted Duck, a pair of Pochard, 5 male and 3 female Gadwall, 4 Little Grebe, 3 Grey Heron, 2 Canada Geese (one on nest), 1 Cormorant, 2 Mute Swans (one on nest), 5 Mallard, 8 Coot, 2 Moorhen, and a fly by of a single Redshank. A couple of Chiff Chaff could be heard singing in the North Wood, along with a few Finches and Reed Bunting in the feeding station.

At the minute the East Pool has a substantial amount of water in it, attracting quite a bit of bird life, today there was 1 Little Grebe, 2 Coot, 4 Canada Geese, 1 Greylag Goose, 1 Mute Swan, Lapwing and a single Drake Shoveler, who was getting some stick from the Coot pair.

A further wander down to the Obelisk produced 2 pair of Grey Partridge and the same of Red-legged , as well as 2 Swallows.

Holywell Pond and the Obelisk Area

Decided to bike down to Holywell after school tonight saying that the wind had died down. Got there about 16:20 and was greeted by quite a few gulls, quick scan produced nothing, then I looked just in front of hide, only a few metres and there was a 2nd Winter Med Gull. After a closer look the bird didn't look to well, making to short flights, with its right leg trailing.

I was joined by Simon and he agreed the bird didn't look right, at 16:36 the Med Gull flew off to the west looking pretty fine other than the trailing leg, I guess it most of just of needed a rest and a drink to sort itself out. I follow Boulmer Birders blog I find his field notes and sketches amazing so I had a go drawing the pattern of black feathering on the head and the beak pattern, I also noticed the amount of the black this gull had on its wings, which I made note of. Here are two poor quality pictures I took, the 2nd to show wing pattern.

Scanning the rest of the gulls I found 2 Lesser Black Backed Gulls, amongst Herring, Common, and Black Headed. On the pond in the way of wildfowl there was 40+ Greylag, 2 Canada, 16 Mallard, 2 Great Crested Grebes performing the reed dance, 1 Little Grebe, 15 Tufted, 21 Wigeon, 6 Pochard, 2 Teal, and 2 Mute Swan, 6 Coot, Moorhen and a Grey heron were also on the pond. The feeding station was relatively quiet with 2 Long-Tailed Tits and a Great Spotted Woodpecker being the highlights. Large Numbers of Goldfinch were in Birch Trees at main gates, and the usual House Sparrow flock in hedgerow leading from estate.

A walk down to the public hide produced 1 Curlew with 3 overhead. i decided to have a walk down to the Obelisk to look for Little Owl and Partridge. When I got down there I picked up 2 Red-Legged Partridge almost straight away they were feeding under a pheasant feeder, also down that way I seen a few Song Thrush, Jackdaw, Rook and a Brown Hare which was new for the area.

I continued down to the path leading to Dene travelling through tall hawthorns, 5 Linnets, Female Sparrowhawk and more Song Thrush were in this area. Quick check of the North Pool produce nothing, then it was off home at 18:30.

Good evening with 45 species, bringing my patch list to 67.

Oh had a Song Thrush on Newsteads Drive on the way to school this morning as well, hopefully they'll breed again.