22nd December - Blashford Lakes, Hampshire

I met Ian at the entrance to Blashford Lakes, a reserve we do not visit that often these days, but we were here for a drake Ring-necked Dove that had been found on one of the lakes last weekend.  We decided to walk through the reserve and around the footpaths to Linbrook Lake east.  We passed the Woodland and Ivy Lake South Hide and then crossed the boardwalk.  Just before the path goes onto the road there was a large gathering of Long-tailed Tits in the trees and bushes.  Other birds seem to follow the noisy Long-tailed Tits so we decided to stop and watch as the tits moved through the branches.

There were at least two Goldcrests with the Long-tailed Tits.

And a rather noisy Nuthatch.

We turned onto Snails Lane and walked east.  The trees alongside the lane were covered in large clumps of Mistletoe high up in the branches.  It was then appropriate to find a Mistle Thrush up amongst them.

On reaching Linbrook Lake East there was a large group of Tufted Duck.  Working through them it didn't take long to locate he Ring-necked Duck, preening amongst the Tufties.  We could only view from the path, the area around the lake privately owned.  To start with we were also peering through the branches.

But we managed to find a spot where there was a clear view.  The first thing that strikes you is the white flash on the side of the grey flank.  After that for me it was the pattern on the bill, strikingly different to the bill of the Tufted Duck.

A better view of the bill pattern here.

It started to come closer to us drifting into the middle of the lake.

The Ring-necked Duck is named for the brown collar across its black neck. This collar is hard to identify in the field (I do not recall ever seeing it in all the ones I have seen); males can usually be identified by their pointed heads, bright yellow eyes, black body and light grey flank, quite visible at a distance. Both sexes carry a pale ring around the bill, close to the tip, and females have pale feathering around the base of the bill and a browny-grey body.  Eclipsing males and juveniles are duller than the female.

Then from nowhere, as we watched the Ring-necked Duck two pairs of Goosander appeared.

A nice drake and the red head female.

The Ring-necked Duck is the rarity here, but I was more than happy to spend sometime watching the Goosander, especially the drake.

Then it was back to the Ring-necked Duck as it mixed with the drake Tufted Ducks.

Here the comparison with the Tufted Duck.  Note the grey flank with the white stripe at the front, the Tufted flank all white, the shape of the Tufted head with the "tufts" and the white band on the end of the bill and at the base of the bill.  Hats off to Tim Doran who found it, some dedication walking around these lakes and working through the Tufted Ducks

The Ring-necked Duck and its Tufty friends then made there way to the west end of the lake and into some dark water near the shore.  An idea of how the Ring-necked would stand out.

Side by side once again.

A native of North America it breeds across much of Canada, Alaska, and the Arctic, with a population also breeding year-round in the north-western portion of the continental United States.  There is a large wintering range across the southern United States, extending into the northern tip of South America. Each year, vagrants do appear in Britain, although escaped captive birds have to be considered with these reports.

Like the Tufted Duck it lends itself to the dark water.

We left the duck and walked back around the various footpaths and then walking the path between Ivy Lake and Rockford Lake.  There were plenty of duck on Ivy Lake, mostly Wigeon, Gadwall and Shoveler.  We stopped at the northern most screen, a Kingfisher made a few fly pasts and did stop for all of a second, but more of interest and surprise was to see the Ivy Lake north hide looking as if it had been through a makeover.

We intended to visit later, but first walked to the Lapwing Hide overlooking Ibsley water.  From the hide there was very little, looking out across the lake we could see huge flocks of duck, but not clear what they were.  A female Goldeneye appeared and gradually made its way towards us which provided the opportunity to photograph a duck that is notorious for keeping its distance.

It was just a shame there wasn't a drake with it

A platform to the left of the hide had a dead deer on it.  I am sure the reserve is hoping to attract the White-tailed Eagles, but today it had brought in a Buzzard and Magpie

We walked back to the cars and had some lunch.  Siskin were feeding in the alders above us, but there was no sign of any thrushes which I had expected to see.

After lunch we walked to the Woodland Hide.  Its fair to say there were more birds in my garden when I got home than on the feeders there.  A Blue and Great Tit and a couple of Chaffinches was all we saw.

So we then walked around to the Ivy Lake North hide, inside this is what we found.

Windows that open at the front and are clear!  

I have named this hide the worst hide in the world and was given so many reasons as to why the hide didn't have windows that opened, but it would seem that they have finally realised it was not fit for purpose and did something about it.

All that said there were the duck, distantly and a few Siskin in the surrounding trees, but we could see them without having to lean out of the side windows.

From the hide we walked around to the clearing in the wooded area where there were more feeders without any birds on them.  It was very strange, maybe it was the mild conditions or perhaps the abundance of natural food about.

We decided to finish in the Tern Hide, but things did not get any better, the wind was blowing strongly from the north west and all the duck were in the north west corner sheltering.  The most numerous duck was the Pintail, there was easily 500 all over the water, maybe more.

The water levels were high and all the islands and spits were covered, this may be the reason why there were no large gulls, or even Black-headed.  Two Lesser Black-backed Gulls made an appearance, but must have received a message that everyone else were roosting somewhere else and flew off.

There were two Great Egret along the shore.

As well as the Pintail there were good numbers of Wigeon with Shoveler and Gadwall.  Diving ducks were represented by Tufted Duck and two pairs of Goldeneye.

Every so often the duck would all fly off and circle the lake, we couldn't find any predator reason for this.

It was two o'clock and the light was going, it didn't look like the gulls were going to come so we decided to call it a day.

There was the feeling that the day was a wash out, mainly due to the dark and gloomy conditions that were not good for photography, but there was the Ring-necked Duck which was a first in Hampshire for me so it wasn't all bad