An unexpected ending to the day.
I hadn't been for a walk from the house for a long while, so decided to do just that this morning, especially as the weather looked good for the first part of the day, a slight frost was on the ground as I climbed over the garden fence just after 8am and headed up to the lane.
A
Great Spotted Woodpecker was drumming away in the Oaks as I left. A flock of around 30
Redwing were in one of the horse paddocks with a couple of
Pied Wagtails. I continued on what is pretty much my normal circuit for the next 3 hours - It was exceptionally slippery in the deep mud that had formed with the heavy rain over the last few days. Typical of Winter birding in this habitat, there was little around for the most part. A flock of
30 Linnets was in the big arable field, several
Siskin were in the Alders by the streams. A
Kestrel and
Common Buzzard were the only raptors seen. A few
Bullfinches were seen although no males. The Furnace pond looked devoid of birds at first, then a
Cormorant appeared followed by a
Grey Heron and right at the far end under the submerged trees ,
4 Mallard and 2 drake
Mandarins were being elusive. A few other common species were seen such as
Treecreeper, Nuthatch,
Mistle Thrush and just a single
Fieldfare but nothing unexpected, just a lot of mud to clean off the boots.
About midday I was returning into the house after cleaning the Hen house and saw that a Greater Yellowlegs had been reported from Titchfield Haven. I didn't really have a plan for the afternoon so decided to try for the bird. I rarely visit that part of the Hampshire coast (as anything South of the A27 between Portsmouth and the New Forest can be a traffic nightmare), but it surprisingly only took 50 minutes to reach the recommended parking, which was near the village of Titchfield, At least a couple of miles north of the main Titchfield NNR. The canal track path was again exceptionally muddy and tricky to navigate, but a few hundred yards of slipping and sliding along this I joined a group of birders overlooking the flooded marsh. The
Greater Yellowlegs was showing straight away although quite distant at the back of the marsh where it was with a small flock of
Black-tailed Godwits. Over the next hour the birds flew to a different part of the marsh about every 15 minutes, allowing flight views of the Yellowlegs , otherwise viewing was limited to decent views through the scope of the bird actively feeding with the Godwits, although eventually at the back of the marsh and behind too many grass tussocks. I've never been successful at digiscoping but I tried a picture with my phone through the scope, which was a complete failure (see below for comedy value only), but happy enough with the views of the Yellowlegs, I headed back home for my second spell of boot cleaning.
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| As I reached the lane... view to where I was walking. |
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| The first stream |
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| The first stream in the woods |
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| The large arable field that held the 30 Linnets |
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| Furnace pond - the only ducks were hiding in the far corner under the trees |
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| The pine belt was quiet - just one Goldcrest |
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| Titchfield Haven , view over Posbrook Flood which held the Yellowlegs |
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| This is why I could never take a phone shot through the scope ! -a laughable picture, so bad the yellow legs look red ! |
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