7th February - Blashford Lakes, Hampshire

It was the lure of the Bittern that had Ian and I meeting up early morning.  From the parked cars we walked around to the Ivy Lake North hide and waited for it to be opened.  Whilst there is limited access to open windows in the hide it is so much better than it used to be.  Then it was only two side windows that opened and the glass was tinted.  As we waited there was a couple of Goldcrest close in the trees and through a gap between the hide and the fence we could see the Kingfisher sitting on the reedmace.

Once in the hide we settled down to scan the reed bed in front of the hide with the thermal imagers.  There was a surge of hope when I picked up a heat source, but this turned out to be a Moorhen.  Other than that there was nothing showing in the reeds at all.  That said it didn't mean it was n't there it could very well have been well behind the reeds and out of sight.

We gave it about an hour and in that time we tried to string some other strange heat sources as Tawny Owl.  One turned out to be a Roe Deer while the other, the closest we never really identified. We decided the Bittern wasn't going to show so it was time to move on

From the Ivy Lake North we walked around to the Woodland hide, very little on the feeders but above us in the top of the alders was a large flock of Siskin.  We walked towards the Ivy Lake South hide and a Kingfisher was around the Settling Pond and a pair of Goldcrest were fly catching along the path.

A Jay sat nicely at the top of the trees, never an easy bird to photograph as they are so shy and skittish.

The Ivy Lake South hide was as bad as the north, very little close to the hide, what duck there were, mostly Wigeon, were on the far side of the lake.  We didn't stay long and decided to take the long walk to the Lapwing hide.  Walking along side the river there were several Song Thrush singing from the trees.

In the Lapwing hide once again all the birds, ducks and gulls were on the west side of the lake and there was absolutely nothing close to the hide.  We didn't stay long and walked around the loop, at the corner we heard splashing in the reeds and could see a Roe Deer jumping through the water and the reeds.  It was then followed by another.  What we noticed was the smell that came from the deer churning up the mud.

next stop was the Goosander Hide and at last something to look at in front of the hide.  A drake Goldeneye, alone to start with.

Then later three females appeared and the male swam to them, but we didn't see any displaying.  They flew off but a pair returned and a chance to see the female close up.

Close to the left side were two red head Goosander, for most of the time we were in the hide they never lifted their heads.

The duck came a little closer, these Wigeon flying into the bay.

We dropped into the Tern Hide after wading through the car park.  Never went in the hide as we were told there was a group in the hide and there was nothing close to the hide.  We scanned the lake from the viewpoint and it was clear nothing was in front of the hide.  Of interest was the gathering of Shoveler on the west bank easily numbered in the hundreds.

Ian had to leave early so I walked back to the Ivy Lake North hide and settled in to see if the bittern would appear.  The thermal imager was out once again and found something in the reeds on the left side, but couldn't see anything that looked anything like a Bittern.  Here the view from the hide.

A Cormorant appeared close to the channel in the reeds on the right hand side.

Cormorants have a prehistoric look about them, with a long sinuous neck, bare yellow skin around the face and a pure emerald green eye; If birds can be said to have an expression a cormorant looks as if it has seen the world and has a dim view of it.

There are two subspecies of cormorant in the United Kingdom. There's the mostly coastal nesting Phalacrocorax carbo carbo, and there's Phalacrocorax carbo sinensis, which arrived from continental Europe and has led the increase of inland cormorant nesting colonies.  This birds shows the white feathers on the top of the head and neck which is the breeding plumage of the sub species "sinesis".

Then a bit of a surprise, I though at first it was one of the Goldcrests, but a closer look showed it to be a Firecrest.  I can't recall ever seeing a Firecrest in a reed bed before, but I suppose it was taking advantage of the good number of insects around the reeds, the Firecrest coming from the pine and holly behind the hide.

Stunning little birds and this one was very active moving quickly through the reeds.

I had been concentrating on the reeds to the left of the left hand channel, but when another birder with a thermal imager came intot he hide, he picked up a shape on the right hand side at the back of the reeds.  In this area there is a bank that stretches around to the reed beed that runs to the Ivy lake south hide, so a Bittern could have come around from there.  I was able to find the image with my camera, but it took some effort to find it with the bins and then the camera.  Not one of my best Bittern photographs but it is clearly a Bittern.

It moved around a little and preened but never came anywhere near showing well.  Eventually it turned and then disappeared around the back of the reeds and away in the direction I had suggested it might have come from.  But what of the other image I saw on the left hand side?  On Sunday it was reported that there were now two bitterns seen from the hide, so was it one?  I will never know.

The end of a day that could have been a disaster, but thanks to the Goldeneye and the Firecrest and of course the bittern sighting, it turned out not so bad.

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5th February - Southsea Castle, Hampshire

Horrible forecast for today and as I drove towards Portsmouth the A3 was very wet.  I parked in the D-Day car park and it was dry and as I walked towards Southsea Castle there was brightness in the sky away to the east.

I was here for the Purple Sandpipers on the rocks below the castle, but since the work to repair and update the sea wall defences finding them has not been easy.  The best time is around two hours before and two hours after high tide.  I was here today four hours before high tide so had plenty of time to search for them with plenty of rock exposed

I walked along the esplanade scanning the rocks with the thermal imager, however trying this out on a few crows showed that in the conditions only the area around the eyes looked hot, so any Purple Sandpiper in the rocks was going to have to have its eyes open, or be moving to be picked up.  I started off walking east to the main groyne, then walked along the esplanade towards Clarence Pier.  The esplanade doesn't reach there yet but it will more than likely be open by the summer.  Scanning was finding nothing in the rocks but there was an adult Shag just off the rocks in the sea and it was in full breeding plumage.

Smaller than the Cormorant the bill is slimmer and in the breeding plumage the adult sports a nifty crest and has a high forehead.  The plumage appears a bottle green in certain light and there is a distinctive yellow gape without any white around the bill.

Another feature of the Shag is its diving behaviour, it leaps completely out of the water, while the Cormorant prefers to roll forward.

Shags are mostly maritime only venturing onto freshwater pools and lakes in bad weather, whereas the Cormorant can be found well inland and will populate inland lakes and reservoirs where it can be a pest to anglers.

This adult dived close to the rocks and at one point came up with a crab which was dispatched quickly.

Like the Cormorant the Shag has to spend time drying their wings as they lack the oils found in other sea birds.

Movement on the rocks raised my hopes but it turned out to be a pair of Crows and they were inspecting the Limpets.

Three hours to high tide and the skies were clear with sunshine, not what was forecast.  The tide was beginning to cover the lower rocks.

With the sun out the Shag was lit up a little better.

I continued to walk up and down the esplanade, walking at times on the wall to get some elevation to be able to look down on the rocks.  Still nothing to be found.

 

With two hours to go the rocks were now almost covered up to those covered in bladder wrack and algae and we still had sunshine.

Another walk aback and forth and this time there was an immature Shag fishing just off the rocks.

The immature Shag can be confused with an immature Cormorant, however a good indicator is the much slimmer bill and the clean white patch on the neck.  It the Cormorant there is a yellow patch within the white.

I mentioned earlier the different diving method, well I managed to capture a sequence that demonstrates this well.

The body completely out of the water.

With thirty minutes to go before my parking ticket was up I decided to walk one more time to the west.  You can't go beyond the Blue Reef Aquarium, but it is possible to view the rocks.  As I walked up three feral Pigeons dropped on to the rocks.  As I watched them I noticed a shape on one of the rocks, this was the view.

A closer look and at last I had found one, just in time.

Completely unconcerned by the crashing waves.

They are about the size of a Dunlin and look similar.  The Purple Sandpiper gets its name from the purple sheen of its plumage seen in good light.  The plumage though provides ideal camouflage amongst the rocks.

Here with two of the Feral Pigeons.

I am always impressed by how they can cling to rocks while the waves crash in.

It then dropped from view and I just about had time to get back to the car.  In the end a successful trip, but I had to put in the leg work to get there.

Rest In Peace Boycie X