14 Mar 22 - A Perfect Level Morning

I had spent the three previous days in Ireland catching up with the Egyptian Vulture and Northern Harrier for my UK & Irish List. It was time to return to the UK. I prefer to catch the daytime ferries back from Ireland, so I can seawatch on the way back. In the Summer & Autumn, there will usually be a few Short-beaked Common Dolphins and maybe a Harbour Porpoise or a Grey Seal, as well as, a few Seabirds. However, I figured it wouldn't be that exciting in mid-March and therefore I might as well I had catch the evening Irish Ferry sailing from Rosslare to Pembroke Dock.

I managed to get a bit of sleep on the ferry, before we were called to prepare to disembark at 00:45. Arriving at this time, leaves a long drive out of Wales in the early hours of the morning. I could have found somewhere to pull the car over for the rest of the night in South Wales, but I had plans for the following morning. So, I carried on until I reached Gordano Services, in the Bristol area. I managed to get an hour & a half of sleep here, until it was starting to get light. After another forty minutes of driving, I pulled into the car park at the Greylake reserve on the Somerset Levels.

It was my first visit to Greylake, but it was a couple of months overdue. On 3 Jan 22, a photographer had published a photo of an odd Duck which was quickly identified as a gorgeous male Baikal Teal. It later turned out it had been there for at least a week before anybody bothered to ask what it was. This is the problem with many Bird photographers, who don't bother to learn about how to identify their subjects. This is a contrast to the Birders, who might still be learning how to get the most out of their cameras, but they generally have good identification skills. In January, I was fully into the start of my 2022 Historic Isle of Purbeck Year List and I never made the journey up to the Levels.

It was a lovely still, crisp and sunny morning, which was perfect weather to visit. I headed straight for the main hide, where there were over five hundred Ducks on a bank running away from the hide or in the water. This included at least one hundred and sixty Teal, four hundred Wigeon, as well as, some Shovelers, Gadwall and Mallards, with more Ducks poorly visible to the left. I asked the two local photographers in the hide about the Baikal Teal, but they weren't looking beyond the first twenty metres from the hide and didn't have any idea if the Baikal Teal was present.

Teal: Males. There were a lot of sleeping Duck in the edges of the reeds

Teal: Male

Wigeon: Male

Shoveler: Male

After five minutes of scanning, one of the Ducks moved to reveal the sleeping make Baikal Teal on the bank. It looking stunning and was closer than normal, according to one of the photographers.

Where's Wally?: This was just some of the mainly Wigeon on the raised bank

Baikal Teal: Wally wasn't that hard to find, once the Wigeon that had been obscuring him had moved out of the way

Eventually, the Baikal Teal woke up and flew a couple of times when the patrolling Marsh Harriers got too close and disturbed all the Ducks. On the second time, the Baikal Teal landed in the water, before heading back to the raised area.

Marsh Harrier: They only passed close to the hide twice, but when they did they flush most of the Ducks

Wigeon: Flushed by one of the flying over Marsh Harriers

Baikal Teal: The Baikal Teal woke up & flushed with the Wigeon, but it quickly came back down onto the water

Baikal Teal: Note, how variable the green colouration in the face is, as the Baikal Teal moves its head

Baikal Teal: It has an interesting head shape when head on

Baikal Teal

Baikal Teal: Finally, it walked back onto the raised bank

It is a great reserve which I will definitely visit again when I'm passing the Levels.

Dabchick

Great White Egret: There were three Great White Egrets further back in the marsh

I stayed for about an hour and a half and left the hide just in time. As I walked back to the car, there was a number of toggers descending on the hide. I was only just starting to use bird hides again after the C19 lockdowns and I didn't want to be in busy hides.

Snipe: This Snipe has just found a worm

Snipe: Sucking up the worm. I love it when I get to photograph a bit of behaviour like this

I later found out that I managed to see the Baikal Teal on its final morning, as it was seen flying off North East in the late afternoon. It wasn't seen again. I was out on the Birds of Poole Harbour bird boats later in March and also at Studland and saw parties of Duck, lift off the water, fly high & leave Poole Harbour on similar clear evenings. So, it looks like they regularly start a migration flight in the hour before dusk.

20 Jul 18 - Some Of The Resident Birds At Studland's Littlesea

Since I found the Purple Heron at Littlesea, I've spent a lot of time looking to try & relocate it during the daytime. I suspect it spends its time feeding at Littlesea, but generally tucked into the reed edges, hence my lack of sightings. However, I have had the chance to get some nice photos of some of the other commoner residents, while I've been looking.

Dabchick: There are a few present most years at Littlesea

Great Crested Grebe: Two pairs have bred this year at Littlesea: this youngster is probably only few days old

Great Crested Grebe: One of the parents of the other pair which had a nearly fully grown youngster with a Roach

Great Crested Grebe: The same parent with the large youngster. The other parent seems to have lost interest in feeding this youngster

Great Crested Grebe: There is also a larger group of non breeding individuals on Littlesea

Great Crested Grebe: Bad hair day

Canada Goose: This family successfully raised these two large youngsters at Littlesea this year

Mediterranean Gull: Moulting adult. Littlesea lies between South & Knoll Beaches and Brands Bay & forms a regular stopover place for a quick freshwater bathing site for the local Gulls

Although I've not seen the Purple Heron during the daytime I have seen it on a number of occasions as it's gone to roost. Unfortunately, it has settled into a habit of going to roost in poor light & remains elusive during the day. Still if it continues to stick around maybe I will eventually get lucky.

Purple Heron: Juv. This individual looks like it is going to become a resident for the next few weeks at least (21 Jul 18)

13 June 14 - A Brilliant Emerald Jewel

Two years ago, I looked for Brilliant Emerald Dragonflies on the Fleet Canal. However, I was right at the end of their flying period & had no luck. Therefore, as it's one of the Southern Dragonflies I've yet to see, I was keen to have another look for them. Having seen the first were flying at the Black Pond at Esher Common in Surrey, then that looked a good place to try. Two advantages over the first attempt, I was going at a good time when they were freshly emerged. Secondly, it was a pond & therefore it should be easier to find them, compared to a canal which had no end to the extent to potential habitat. They like to fly in shady areas, but also on sunny days. So with the weather forecast predicting good warm weather with sunshine & some cloud, the conditions were looking good.

The Black Pond on Esher Common

The Black Pond on Esher Common: The Brilliant Emerald was at the far end of this bank, patrolling over a small area of shallow water. Unfortunately, the many dog walkers seem to think it's essential to throw a stick into the pond at the near end then have their dog swim the length of the pond's edge & walk out where the Brilliant Emerald is patrolling. Thus flushing it for several minutes. Glad I went mid week as a sunny weekend day would have been near impossible due to disturbance by dogs & unimaginative dog owners

The first Dragonfly I saw was a Black-tailed Skimmer & there were several males flying around the edge of the lake.

Black-tailed Skimmer: Male. Another blue Chaser with the combination of a slim abdomen, the black end to the abdomen, yellow edges to the blue abdomen & no dark wing bases

Initially, there was no sign of any Brilliant Emeralds, but then an Emerald came along the edge of the lake a couple of times, but quickly disappeared. On the brief views I had seen it, I couldn't rule out the similar looking Downy Emerald. I had no further sightings in the next few minutes, so carried on to the end of the pond, where I saw the Emerald again flying low over the water. After a couple of minutes of not being able to get any worthwhile photographs, I switched to the binoculars & could see the distinctive green and yellow face pattern of a Brilliant Emerald: success. The sun then came out & it flew into a small patch of sunlight under the trees where I managed to get some flight shots.

Brilliant Emerald: Male. They are brighter & more metallic, but this is very subjective. But they have a flattened yellow U band across the top of the forehead that turns up at each end which Downy Emerald doesn't have

Brilliant Emerald: Male. A close up of the flattened yellow U. This was even more obvious when fully face on, but I was using the bins & not the camera at the time

Brilliant Emerald: Male. Females have a downward spike at the end of the abdomen. Note, the sides of the yellow U are even visible side on (in this photo)

With the new Dragonfly seen & photographed, there was a few minutes to photograph some of the other residents of the Black Pond.

Dabchick

Moorhen

Coot

29 Jan 14 - Searching For A Sparrow

The last day in India got off to a slow start. Woke early as I had an early taxi booked from the hotel near the airport to go to Sultanpur Bird Reserve, about 25 miles away. However, I wasn't feeling right after something I had eaten the previous night & ended up changing the taxi time by a couple of hours. Fortunately, the problem cleared up a bit & by 09:00 I was on my way. The main target was Sind Sparrows which look like a small House Sparrow & it's a fairly recent addition to the areas list, having arrived by following irrigation ditches from Pakistan. So this one time Pakistan goodie is now possible to see within an hours drive of Delhi. Not surprising, there was a lot of early morning haze & it never really cleared up, so perhaps partly pollution related given Delhi's proximity.

The lake was packed out with wildfowl as well as a few Nilgai, Water Buffalo & cattle 

The lake was even more impressive when viewed from the tower hide

Lunch was in the Rosy Pelican hotel next door: Shame the owners didn't bother to engage somebody who knew what they were doing, as half the big hotel signs had American species, instead of celebrating the local wildlife next door

Sultanpur is a much smaller reserve than Bharatpur & it would be possible to walk around its perimeter in a couple of hours at a slow birding pace, if it wasn't for the presence of a couple of high gates stopping you. It is a reasonable sized lake which has survived in a mass of cultivated fields & human habitation & judging by the numbers of birds, it must be the only decent sized lake for some distance. Initially, I walked clockwise around the lake, until I got stopped by the 4 metre high gate. In the trees around the lake edge, I had another Brooks's Warbler which was good to see. Unfortunately, the wet fields on this side were all dried out & planted with oil seed rape. This was where Bill had seen the Sind Sparrows on a previous visit & I assume their presence at Sultanpur is probably seasonal. Perhaps I should have tried contacting a local guide as he would probably have had other sites. Later I walked anticlockwise around the lake & found the other gate, but this time it was possible to just walk around the fence as the water level was so low. After walking around 3/4 of the lake, I reached the initial gate & rather than back track I ended up climbing over it.

Dabchick: Breeding plumage  

Dabchick: Non breeding plumage

Painted Stork: Bushes on islands in the lake provided safe nesting for Painted Storks & other tree nesting species

Black-necked Stork: There were a few nests amongst the larger numbers of Painted Storks

Grey-headed Swamphen

White-tailed Plover

Hoopoe: This is the orientalis subspecies which replaces the Southern ceylonensis subspecies that we saw in Western Ghats

 Red Avadavat: Male. Surprisingly these were the first Red Avadavats for the Indian trip

Red Avadavat: The females keep their dull plumage, unlike the males which moult into the bright plumage for the breeding season

Nilgai: Male

Nilgai: Females or immatures

Finally, it was time to head back into Delhi & start packing for the early am flight the next morning.

An Indian approach to traffic jams: This car wasn't changing lanes, it was just creating an extra lane to drive in

Just have to hope George Osborne doesn't see this: A 20 lane toll booth on our main road. The Tories could have a lot of fun with the UK motorways

The Indian solution to cross rail: Like a lot of big cities, the new tube & trains are going in above the main roads. How much cheaper would crossrail have been for Londoners?