A Little Crake had been found during the week at Linford Lakes Nature reserve which is at the northern end of Milton Keynes. We had a mini-plan to try for this on the way back from Spurn, but a combination of poor weather and permit-holder access only slightly conspired against us giving it a try.
So this morning I set off early, having to scrape a rare frost from the car, to arrive for first light access, as non-permit holders would be allowed in at 7am. Having exited the M1, about 30 roundabouts later, I found myself in the car park and after a short walk was one of the first to be let in.
Milton Keynes was a new purpose built town approved in the late 1960's. I think the first thing they did on the 9,000 hectare site was try and fit as many of the 120+ roundabouts as possible then build all the houses around it.
The nature reserve is a few lakes with surrounding tree/shrub habitat with a small reedbed area. The site looks to have a reasonable avian interest for an inland reserve.
The Little Crake had been mostly seen from the 'Otter' hide which can accommodate 15-20 people, half sitting / half standing. When I arrived the hide was not quite full but no seats were left, and shortly afterwards a queue was forming outside the hide. rotation would only take place once the bird had been seen.
In previous days the Crake had appeared within the first 45 minutes after sunrise, not this morning. There really wasn't much happening at all. A few Mallard, Moorhen a single Gadwall and 2 Great Egrets were pretty much all that was seen, then surprisingly a Reed Warbler, which is quite late for a typically Summer migrant.
The morning started to edge on and despite a squealing Water Rail giving a glimmer of hope that more was hidden in the reeds the more time moved on without any crake sighting the more restless comments in the hide with many saying that the clear night and change in water level may have encouraged the bird to depart. It reached 10am and some started to leave, so at least I got a seat !. I decided to give it until 11 and then see whether to leave or not. I kept on scanning with no reward, but it was approaching 11am, suddenly my scope landed on a bird with it's head sticking out of the reeds, which didn't look like the juvenile Moorhen which had been around. It briefly came into view and there it was. I said I had the Little Crake and gave directions, a few people managed to see it before it dived in the back in the reeds again, giving a few more moments of panic to those who hadn't seen it, but over the next 30 minutes it worked it's way along the edge of the reeds on what I would call the far bank, with scope views the best option but I think all had reasonable views.
After a long wait it was great to see this bird which was new for me and made it a worthwhile trip.
 |
| Little Crake |
 |
| Little Crake |
 |
| Little Crake |
 |
| Little Crake |
 |
| Little Crake |
 |
| Little Crake |
 |
| Little Crake |
 |
| Little Crake |
 |
| Little Crake |
 |
| Little Crake |
 |
| View from the hide, Crake was on the edge of the far reeds on the left |
No comments:
Post a Comment