19th January - Fishlake Meadows, Hampshire

I had to be in Winchester first thing in the morning, so decided to go from there to Fishlake Meadows.  A first visit for the year, always a chance that the immature White-tailed Eagle may be about.  It was though a very miserable day, low overcast cloud with little wind to move things around, the perfect weather for the day the media were dubbing Blue Monday.

From the car par I walked around to the viewing point off the road.  Immediately I knew there was no eagle as the water was covered with roosting gulls.  Close in there was a a group of eleven Pochard, this consisted of eight males and three females.

The female looking quite drab in the gloom.

The origin of the name Pochard is unknown, but was applied to the group of diving ducks from the mid 1500's.

The light brightened a little to aid the female's appearance.

The males look smart with there brick red head, white eye and pale grey backs.

The other diving duck present was the Tufted Duck.  The males looking splendid in the monochrome conditions.

I walked down to Mercer Way to see if I could find any thrushes.  There was only a couple of Blackbirds about, but I did come across a pair of Bullfinches, the male showing nicely to brighten the gloom.

The name Bullfinch comes from their large head and stocky shape.  But this shape also gives us other local names such as Bull Spink, Bully and Bulldog that have been used in the past.  Other names point to the Bullfinch's love of eating the buds of trees, Bud Bird, Bud Finch and Bud Picker.

Walking back to the reserve there were several Chiffchaff along the canal path, difficult to photograph in the gloom as they chased small insects through the branches.

There are large groups of Alder trees along the Canal Path and in one there was at least fifty Siskin.  They could be seen hanging acrobatically as they fed on the seeds of the tree.  This is a male with the black head.

A female, lacking the bold markings of the male.

The male once more.

When there are large groups of birds other species appear and amongst the Siskin were several Long-tailed Tits and this Treecreeper, making its way up the trunk of one of the Alders.

I turned onto the central path and then waded for most of the way to the central screens.  I shouldn't have bothered, other than a few swans and calls of Water Rail, it was completely dead.

Resigned to the fact that the light and day wasn't going to get any better I made my was back.  As I walked I checked the flooded areas under the trees on both sides of the path hoping for a glimpse of Water Rail or Cetti's Warbler, but without success.  What I did come across was this Goldcrest that had just had a bath in one of the pools and was drying off on one of the higher branches.

Along with the Firecrest, the Goldcrest is the smallest bird in the United Kingdom.  The average weight being that of a twenty pence coin at around five grammes.  In order to retain body weight they have to feed constantly, especially so during the winter, so catching this one after a bath was rather special.

The gloom never lifted and it even started to rain.  It wasn't what I had hoped for, but I did manage to get some year ticks to boost my total.

5th January - Bridge Street and Posbrook Floods and Titchfield Haven, Hampshire

The cold spell continues, but I didn't expect the scene I woke up to this morning, about a couple of centimetres of snow.

I had arrange to meet Ian at the Bridge Street car park and initially thought the snow might delay me, but I was able to get away, the main roads being free, the only problem around home.  The drive down the A32 and the Meon Valley was stunning, coming into West Meon there was mist and a low sun, and then towards Corhampton, mist hugging the river as it wound its way towards Titchfield.

Ian arrived just as I did and we walked to the horse paddocks on the other side of the street.  There had been a dusting of snow on the already frosty ground and there wasn't any sign of the Glossy Ibis, but a bonus was a single Water Pipit around some of the open water.

The greyish head, supercillium and the whiter breast separating this pipit from the similar sized Rock Pipit.

We walked to the view point to look over the Bridge Street floods.  Unlike Posbrook these floods are fed by the river so was relatively ice free.  Posbrook relies on the water flooding from the floods and as a result was frozen.

With open water there were Shoveler, Teal, four Pintail, and Egyptian Geese.  Waders were represented by Lapwing, Black-tailed Godwits and snipe hidden amongst the vegetation.

Walking back to the car park there were two Glossy Ibis feeding in a filed at the back of the area.

We walked down the Canal path, there was a dusting of snow on the path and the fence posts were covered in frost.  This Robin sat on the post and remained there as we walked past

As we walked towards the bridge two Glossy Ibis flew up from the field on the other side.  This used to be a horse paddock, but now it is fenced off as a housing estate will eventually swallow it up.

As we walked along the path Snipe were pinging up from the bulrushes, but then we flushed a small snipe form the side of the path.  It flew up and was smaller and with a much smaller bill, bingo, Jack Snipe.

The Glossy Ibis dropped into the field on the east side of the path, where of course the light was poor.

As I tried to get to better light they flushed and then bizarrely landed on the canal path and walked towards the bridge.

I was then distracted by a Grey Wagtail that dropped onto the bracken alongside the canal.  It didn't stop long.

We had lost the Glossy Ibis, so I searched the fenced off field.  There were three Snipe in the grass.

We walked up the path towards Greater Posbook farm with Goldcrest and a pair of Bullfinches.  The male showed briefly then the pair disappeared.

But back at the canal path we came across them again and this time the male showed in the open, albeit with an annoying branch.

Another Glossy Ibis flew from down the valley and dropped out of sight in the vegetation.  Back at the car park we decided to walk back to the paddocks.  The Water Pipit was still present but as I tried to get a better view it flew off high towards the floods.

There were two Glossy Ibis close to the path.

There have been six Glossy Ibis around the paddocks over the last few days.  There have been at least two adult birds, they show much more glossy feathers than the immature birds like these that still have the plumage developing.  They still look impressive though in the winter sunshine.

They walked to behind the horse stables and I was able to photograph from the road.

The ground quite soft here after the sun has warmed it up.

We left Bridge Street and drove around to the sea wall at Hill Head.  The tide was high and there was plenty of ice in the bay, covered with a dusting of snow.

Plenty of gulls settled on the ice, here mostly Black-headed Gulls

And more Black-headed Gulls and a few Common Gulls.

there were about twenty plus Sanderling on the beach at the base of the rainbow bar.

With the scrapes frozen over we decided to walk down the east side of the reserve to check the meadows.  We walked all the way to the Knight's Bank hide.  One of three Marsh Harriers was flying out over the meadow.

There were Canada and Egyptian Geese out on the meadow with four Greylag Geese amongst them.  Two Curlew were feeding towards the Meadow hide.

A Sparrowhawk flew in front of the hide and it made a token effort to take a Snipe that flushed.  A little later a Kestrel flew past the hide in the other direction carrying what looked like a field vole.

It settled on a post where we have to assume it dispatched the vole because a little later in was hovering in front of the hide.

We were waiting for the White-fronted Geese that have been around for the last few days to drop in, but they didn't so we decided to leave, it was cold and the sun was dropping.  A good day, shame about the geese.