Blue Tits, why cant we just have Blue Tits?

It's no secret, I love my garden feeders and lose a lot of time, just watching what turns up, their behaviour etc. I've not exactly hidden my pleasure in how the new house / garden is working out.
After eighteen months of nothing on Picket Twenty estate, the move to an older, more established estate is obviously paying off.

But it all costs money. This week I've been a little frustrated in the fact that I have now become a corvid restaurant. Rooks, Carrion Crow, Jackdaws along with Magpie, Woodpigeon and Feral Pigeon are seemingly always raiding one feeder or another. It's getting expensive!

I've stopped putting bread out, a) as we seem to be coming out of winter and the frosts, and b) I'd quite like the little fellas to stand more of a chance on the feeders.
But today I broke the 'no bread' rule.

Sat in the conservatory, I had just snapped the occasionly visiting male Blackcap, I was watching three feral pigeon and a couple of woodpigeon in the garden when a pair of Mallard suddenly flew over the fence and in to our garden. We are four hundred metres away (and uphill) from the lakes and nearest river. Surprised? Just a little!

So we grab some bread from the kitchen, not the best food for ducks I know, but this is one exception I'm happy to go with.  If you live on a lake or river then this probably doesn't sound so odd, but here!

The ducks flew off after around a quarter of an hour and then zipp! a Sparrowhawk flew through. Everything scattered in alarm and, apart from one woodpigeon who froze, and the garden went quiet for around thirty minutes! I suspect the sprawk didnt go too far but couldn't see it.

Perhaps I will still feed the sky pigs, a sparrowhawk strike would be great to get on camera, and who is gonna miss one feral pigeon or two?

Normal service resumed after a while and the corvids and pigeons returned.  C'mon Sparrowhawks!

And the blackcap. Seen it three times so far, luckily this time I had the camera handy.

The ducks returned at 5:30 p.m. looked like they were going to roost for the night but have just flown off somewhere.

Another day by the sea!!

Two of the last four days spend down the South Coast! The return to work will seem so very painful tomorrow. Back to a company that doesn't want you, but partner agencies do. Funding cuts mean redundancy is only a few months away. In all honesty I love the job, the people, but motivation is waning. The next step is never far from my mind - I just need to work out what that is exactly.

Anyhoo. Making the most of my remaining annual leave I headed down to Titchfield today. Target bird was one of the Penduline Tits that has been frequenting the reserve on and off for the last couple of months. I must be one of only a few birders who have not caught up with them yet.

Sadly, despite a great day, with amazing sunshine, that is still the case.

The Meadow Hide is where the birds were last listed at so that was my first port of call.
Not a complete waste of time as a Red Kite was mobbing a Marsh Harrier.  A long way off, so pics not great, and a pair of Barnacle Geese also in the distance. (Click on pics to enlarge).

A male Kestrel hovered very close to the Hide, it missed what ever it was trying to catch, but I managed to get a few snaps.

Walking along the coast line to the other half of the reserve I checked the sea for anything of interest. Plenty of Brent Geese here, along with Turnstone and Oystercatchers.

On the shoreline, next to some Oiks were some very small white birds. Not seen any before but I kept saying Sanderling to myself. I was right :-)

Big boats moored up at Fawley Oil Refinery.

Back on the reserve, once again checking every bit of reedbed, managed to snap a few pics of Avocet and Med Gulls.

Another day, another sunburnt head. Working for a living is so overrated. No matter how much you love your job.

Back to Normandy, Pennington, Keyhaven, whats it called?

Coming to the end of a week off work and the weather was picking up.
Pennington time!

A long coastal stretch between Hurst Castle spit and marinas and the marinas at Lymington, this area is a brilliant place for a day out with the camera. Easy to get to, free to park, and 90 percent quieter than places like Bournemouth or even Mudeford.
The Solent and mudflats on one side, brackish lagoons and pools the other, it is a birdwatcher / photographers paradise. I love it anyways.
From Lymington to Keyhaven there is always a lot to see, but pack your walking boots!

I've snapped one of the reserve maps, to try and make sense of my ramblings, in both senses of the word. (Click on all the pictures to expand them).

I arrived about 10:30 a.m, a little later than planned, but headed straight to Fishtail Lagoon (You are here on the map) in the hope of snapping one of the four recently listed Spoonbill.   A quick scan of the lagoon - frustratingly couldn't see one..  Hmmm.  A Little Grebe was fishing in one of the outlets, so got a few snaps of that.

 

There was a lot of water. Normally dry fields were flooded, the fields (Pennington Marsh) at the end of Lower Pennington Lane were under water, as was half the campsite on the other side of the road. Spoonbill are big, but this could be a 'needle in a haystack' job.  I spot something tall and white on Butts so head over there for a look....   Egret.

Walking further along the sea wall on to Pennington Lagoon and something looking like a Tufted Duck flies over my head and drops in on the water channel. Boom! Male Red Breasted Merganser! Just a few metres away from me and posing well. I follow it up the channel as it dives for food. Ain't gonna lie, almost had goosebumps at this stonker by my feet. Lots of pictures and videos taken. I'd probably have been happy with just that today.

Leaving the Merg alone I headed back to Fishtail and success, sleeping, but a Spoonbill. A few distance pictures taken whilst I waited for it to wake up. Realistically, this could take a while so I headed up to Keyhaven, whilst checking the rest of Fishtail on the way. Lots of Brent Geese, over a thousand there I reckon, plus the most Pintail I've seen in one location ever. Shelduck, Wigeon still here with Teal and a couple of Ruff at the back.

 Brent Geese

 Sleeping Spoonbill on Fishtail.

 A distant Ruff.

Pintail.

Another sleeping Spoonbill on Keyhaven. Wake up!!!
Keyhaven was big! Lots of water here made the lagoon seem bigger than it probably always is  - and everything was far off. A quick check for Shorties or Marsh Harriers over the reedbeds - none - and back to the closer but still sleeping Spoonbill on Fishtail.

Then, like my Merg moment, a bit of luck.
I always say 'you make your own luck' or 'you've got to be there to see it' etc. And the timing for me was bang on as a Roe Deer runs on to the reserve. Everything takes off including the Spoonbill. Snap, snap, snap..  And then back to its sleeping position but I didn't care. I'd got my pics.

 And back to sleep.

And thanks to the deer that flushed everything.

I normally go to Normandy Lagoon first, don't know why, but today I did it the other way around. Probably itching to get to the Spoonbill.
So, back to the car and drive around to Normandy Lane and park up and walk to the Lagoon. I used to walk it all, but was on a bit of a deadline today, had to be back for the school run. An optimistic check of the fields and grass for any Wheatear. A little too optimistic and early it seems.

Normandy is great. Everything is usually closer as it's a smaller, more contained lagoon. Dunlin, Snipe, Greenshank and Redshank, included Spotted, more Brent, one Ringed Plover and a couple of Black Tailed Godwit. All feeding in the mud.

 Oystercatcher and Lapwing

 Redshank

 Lapwing and a Dunlin

A bathing Black Tailed Godwit

 How's that for 'dont forget behind your ears'!

 A Black Headed Gull buzzing a Greenshank

And Wigeon. I love Wigeon.

Watching all these from the sea defense wall, whilst also checking out to sea for Eider (didn't see any) I notice something in the channel between the sea wall and the mudflats. Small, regularly diving, It's a Grebe, but what kind?  My thought was a Black Necked, but after asking the opinion of some learned friends it appears it was a Slavonian Grebe. A 'life tick' for me. Happy with that.

 Slavonian Grebe

Time to go home.

Tales of the riverbank...

As I mentioned in previous posts, a recent 'forced' house move has actually worked out pretty well.
Our old place we were renting was put up for sale and I was keen to try and get back to living in the country. Sadly, everyone else had the same idea and we kept losing out on fab properties on farms or in small hamlets or villages.

Working in Newbury (currently, looks like this will end with redundancy in June), I was keen to end up somewhere north of Andover and closer to work, but this sadly proved impossible, unless we wanted to live on a rabbit warren estate. No thanks!

We'd had a viewing on the place we are now in, but kept hanging on for something bigger. Our old house had spoiled us somewhat in some ways, being a three storey house. Mine and Rach's floor was probably bigger than the whole of the first floor in this new house, but the clock was ticking and I was the one who convinced Rach that due to having a garage and conservatory and a large 'usable' garden it was worth taking the chance on this house. Oh, and luckily for me, it was a five minute walk to Rooksbury Lakes.

Featured heavily in this blog already, there are bound to be a lot more Rooskbury related posts, so maybe it's time to introduce them to you properly.

Latterly a trout farm and at some point in the 60's a mink farm, the lakes were given to the local council around a decade ago after a developer bought the land with the aim of building more properties around the old Mill and accompanying houses.  One of these new houses I have been lucky enough to live in twice. (see previous posts).
The lakes are fed by the River Anton that runs from Penton, through Charlton and the town centre, and after Rooksbury it makes its way the Clatfords before joining the River Test at Fullerton and my favourite summer pub - The Mayfly

This map shows the lakes and how the river flows through the reserve. Click on the pic to see the text. Hopefully it makes sense and is visible.

With moving in to the new property, and emptying and cleaning the old one, it's probably not surprising that it took me over two weeks to walk the four minutes (yes, I timed it) down to the lakes. I'm lucky to see a lot of wildlife in my work time, but there isn't much like strolling around the lakes on a frosty morning watching the day wake up.

There is always something to see, if you take the time - and that's why I love it. I can lose a good hour or two just walking around, listening out for bullfinch or kingfisher, watching the cormorant fish or water voles scuttle around the banks or swim across the river. Head clearing stuff that more people should do, even better for me if they do it somewhere else though ;o)

Rooksbury has changed a lot over the last seven years, most significantly over the last two years or so. There has been a lot of vegetation 'cut backs' and removing anything that is not indigenous. I understand the reasoning for leylandii even if I don't agree, but the cutting back of brambles, and other scrub that offers so much for birds, mammals and insects has turned the lakes into ornamental 'town' lakes, rather than what you'd expect for a designated LNR (local nature reserve). But I'll park that one there.

What are doing well at Rooksbury are the Water Voles. Always have in my time, so they must be doing something right. This morning the voles were on top form. Two showing well, within about five metres of each other, either side of the middle bridge. I don't know much about territory sizes so have some homework to do there but I was surprised to see them so close to each other.
I was on the lakes at around 7:45 a.m and the sun was low and offering good light as it shone through the bridge rails.

And a bit of video. This one I was stood over, watching from the bridge. 

And a couple from last week.

I have the week off so will probably get down there a fair bit, watching them. Sadly I think today was probably the best weather day of the week though.
I've yet to see or even hear a Kingfisher yet this year, but they have been spotted and snapped, so hopefully it wont be too long.

Should probably ride my bike again one day too, but that can wait for now.