BIRD NEWS:293

The pheasant family were around for quite some time. My patience paid off, and within the 25-30 minutes I remained at the hide, the water rail made an appearance. This is the 3rd trip in a row I have been lucky enough to spot it.

The pheasants remained also, although when all 3 were there, one chased the water rail away a couple of times - it moved towards the water but then returned to view 3-4 times.

Munching away with the either juvenile or female pheasant, the water rails return appearance gave further chances of a good shot.

The moorhen and mallard stayed around also, and a female mallard joined her mate not long afterwards.

BIRD NEWS:292 & coal tits

I took one last picture of the bluetit too, before moving to the woodland hide. On the last couple of visits, I have spotted the water rail and a pheasant family, and I was wondering if they would make an appearance on this trip also. On arrival, however, I spotted a pair of doves and a black and white duck!

Doves are woodland birds, but I had not spotted them in the woodland hide before. I often spend a longer time at this hide than others, as not only are there more birds in situ, but more variety also. On this occasion, it was not long before other birds arrived on the scene.

Here came either the female or juvenile pheasant, for example. I am not sure which is grey and which brown, but it is one of the two. Soon, the entire family arrived.

No, that was not the total of bird species spotted on this trip - far from it. I remained in situ for around a half hour on this occasion and plenty more appeared - such as this male mallard and moorhen.

HERE is some info about coal tits - seen regularly at Arundel.

BIRD NEWS:291

This little fellow was the bird shown in flight in my last blog post - a long-tailed tit! In fact, there were a few of them - at least 2, as evidenced in the second picture. There were also a few blue tits caught on camera,although the great tits did not seem to be in shot when photos were taken, although there were a couple present also.

I still did not have any really expert shots of long tailed tits, so stayed around whilst they did, trying to take a lot of pictures, hoping a couple would come out very well.

This second shot is a favorite of mine, showing not only the long tailed tit facially, but an accompanying blue tit. The blue tits stayed around after the long-tailed tits left - but I did manage one final shot.

BIRD NEWS:290

I got a better shot of the trumpeter swan family as I turned the corner towards the next hide. I also got a shot of a duck, swimming serenly beside a log before doing so. I noted that the youth of this current year still remained somewhat grayish in coloration and it will be interesting to see when they turn full white akin to their parents. Will it be before the next nest is built, the next brood hatched, or later in the coming year?

The next hide did not have much to view today, though I spotted a nest in a distant tree. There was however an info board talking about penguins. I have not viewed any live specimens at the reserve, but include the board for those interested in amassing information - after all, thery are birds.

I progressed along the reedwalk beds, which is serene with gentle swishy reeds, although I rarely see much wildlife beyond the odd mallard. On today's journey, I spotted some white water - and wondered if there was oil or pollution - but on closer inspection, it was just ice! This was surprising, as most of the reserve was ice-free - just this little patch still had ice remaining.

I then arrived at the outdoor feedery and what did I see? I will leave you to guess and let you know the ID of the mystery bird, seen here in flight, in my next post.

BIRD NEWS:289

Here is the male Bewicks swan standing on one side of the lake, while the female stands the other, as seen in my last post. The male was exhibiting what might probably have been mating behaviour had it been seen in a month or two's time - but possibly mating or territorial behaviour - to me, as yet unknown.

It then dived into the lake and swam about as if nothing unusual was happening...

My next stop was one of the hides where I spotted a grey heron along with a bunch of ducks. I had to wait for a while until it stopped preening before getting a shot of its face, though.

Before moving along, I spotted a coot, but it was not long before the next batch of swans arrived in front of me - the trumpeter family.

BIRD NEWS:288

It was the garden birdwatch weekend on the last week in January, and I amassed: one magpie, 12 sparrows, 2 blackbirds, 8 starlings, 1 wood pigeon, 1 blue tit, 1 robin and 1 song thrush in my hour of viewing thru the kitchen window.

Shortly afterward, I was off out on a 700 run and visiting Arundel again! Plenty more birds there - but not in a back yard! However, whilst still at home, I managed to get a few shots of the song thrush - that turned up in the final 1-minute of the birdwatch and so just scraped in as being a sighting.

Before my trip, I also caught a jackdaw on camera - munching fallen suet ball crumbs after standing on the metal and pecking at the suet balls still in situ. Then, I was off on my trip. Before I arrived at the Wetlands Reserve this week, I caught a shot of some pheasants roaming a field on the avenue towards my destination.

I also captured a group of birds at Swanbourne Lake as I walked past - regular readers will recall these geese and swan enthusiasts will recognize a mute swan, while newbies and those not well acquainted with birds will still spot a few seagulls. Then I arrived and my first shot on this trip was of the Bewicks' swan.

BIRD NEWS:287

Here are two pigeons enjoying the dropped from feeder crumbs along with a sparrow in the back yard. The photo was taken in January when bursts of sparrow and occasional pigeon, blackbird and robin were all I sighted. While sitting at Betty's place waiting for her washing machine to finish, I spotted a wren and 2 long tailed tits in the tree outside, though.

HERE is some info about the British Song Thrush - of which we have one in our yard that only appears in winter.

& the mystery pigeon returned! Hopefully now it has learned there is often seed and other tit bits lying about, it will visit regularly. Of course, Pidge still hangs out in the tree.

January continued and we entered a very cold spell, if dry. Plenty of action at the feeder pole resulted at home, with the sparrows demolishing a tub full of seed 1-2 times a day. The starlings did not frequent the garden much, although we had other visitors - such as the magpies. For once, it was cold enough to share the territory rather than run away, it seems.