Third Time Lucky

The internet is awash with images of a Glaucous Gull which had turned up at Hollingworth Lake on the proceeding Thursday. Breeding in Iceland these gulls are seen annually in the UK in small numbers of only up two hundred so still not that common a bird.

It’s Saturday morning and I make the short drive to Hollingworth Lake where the gull has been benefiting from the free food people are throwing to the ducks and geese. Images I've seen are of the gull stood on the slipway amongst the ducks so I’m not expecting to work hard locating the gull.

It doesn’t get light until around 8.0 am so I can have a bit of lie-in and still arrive just after 8.30 am. The light is poor, it’s grey and cold but at least I can sit in the car and still easily pick up the second large gull of the region amongst the smaller Black Headed Gulls. Now 11.0 am the gull hasn’t appeared so with other activities on the agenda for today I call time.

Later that evening I read a report that the Glaucous Gull had put in an appearance at around 11.30 am, sometime it works like that so I intend trying again tomorrow morning. The next day as I drive into the carpark I can see the gull sat on the pontoon next to the slipway, a little too far away for an decent image in any case there’s a rope is obscuring the bird and it’s also sat next to a plastic pole mount. After some minuets the bird takes to the air flying off in the direction of the Wine Press Pub not to return for the remainder of my visit.

Third time luck ?…well not quite. Monday morning and another visit, it’s quiet a little different to yesterday with the hoards of people and the reorganised Santa Fun Run. Rain, sleet, grey is the order of the day and refrain putting money in the parking machine as I’m not expecting to stay very long, with no sign of the gull I decide to call time to return home and finish working down the list of DIY jobs my wife has very kindly compiled.

Around 11.30 am I read a post on the internet…”THE GULL IS ON THE SLIP…NOW ! “ it take’s me fifteen minuets and I’m back, the gull is sat on the slip….Third time lucky !

After an initial frantic five minuets thinking the gull’s going to depart...it doesn’t, content just to sit and wait for the next easy meal its been enjoying over the last couple of days. I take my time and over the next two hours getting some unusually close images, no need for the Big White on this occasion using the 100-400 for the entire session. 

Job done.

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Greater Manchester Scaup

Elton Reservoir being slap bang in the middle of Bury is not the most pictures of places and as you would expect gets more than its fair share of dog walkers and occasional vandalism, nevertheless and surprisingly it continues to turn up some unusual interesting sightings none more so than the still present Mealy Redpoll.

Over the last couple of weeks the rain has been relentless but with a forecast of some better light I thought I’d try for some images of the Greater Scaup which had turned up a couple of days earlier. Trundling down the pot holed track to the carpark it’s still cloudy but at least it’s not raining, to make matters worse I’ve gone and left my bins back at the house..hey ho !

I pick up the Scaup at the entrance at what’s referred locally as the “creek” with the long lens, it see’s me and moves out into more open water not nearly close enough for an image so planned ‘B’ sit down under a bank and wait to see if the duck moves back into the creek. Slowly the Scaup moves a little closer and for a brief couple of minuets to sun shows itself, I grab what I think is an acceptable image but soon the light has gone and I call it a day.

It’s now the following day and I’m finishing off a couple DIY jobs around the house, looking out the window and it’s turning into a sunny day, tools down and I’m soon off to Elton to try for better images of the Scaup. Bins in hand this time I pick up the duck now with some Tufted Duck, so I positioned myself at the same location at entrance to the creek decked in camo / scrim and wait. 

It's a waiting game as dog walkers cause the ducks to move from the creek to open water and when it’s safe move back to the creek. Over the next ninety minuets I get some decent images of both the Scaup and Tufted Ducks in some decent light, well worth the return visit. 

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Scaup - taken on the first day

These scaup images were taken on the second day

Twite in the Sunshine

Twite a Linnet like bird normally during the breeding season are found on upper Lancashire moors but in winter can offend be found over wintering on the coast. 

Located at Knott End on the File Coast I’ve noted over the last couple of weeks a group of long staying Twite of about forty five birds visiting the high tide line of a small bay feeding on the seed. So checking yesterdays birding reports confirming the birds were still present, I packed the gear for a photo session on another fantastic sunny day.

Knott End on Sea with views across the Morecambe Bay of the snow capped peaks of the Lake District is located across the River Wyre directly opposite Fleetwood better known in former times as a main fishing port. Arriving at 9.30 am it's deathly quite apart from the odd early morning walker, having never having been to this part of the Fylde Coast before I decide to have a walk, the quite has a calming effect and totally different to a Friday during a week of my former stressful working life. 

On the way back from the walk I note a birder scanning the small bay, it’s the group of Twite and quickly return to the car for the gear. The birds are feeding on the high tide mark, unfortunately they are so small they are lost amongst the weed and debris, my best opportunity is a shot of a bird perching on a stone or maybe the mud.

The birds are easily spooked by walkers peering over the slip wondering what this chap is doing with a long lens and fly off but soon return after about fifteen minuets, that's the routine for the rest of the morning.

All to soon I have recorded about a thousand images on the digital card, it’s been a great day and hopeful I've recorded some usable images

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Twite

Mealy Redpoll - Elton Bury

Towards the end of the 2016 year there have been a number of Lesser Redpolls visiting the seed feeders adjacent to the carpark at Elton Reservoir in Bury. Just before Christmas there was a report of a very "pale" Redpoll in the group of visiting Redpolls with the characteristics possibly of a Common or by its other name Mealy Redpoll.

This is not intended to be a technical paper but more a pictorial record with comment only for interest.

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This image above shows a male Lesser Redpoll. The birds mantle shows is significantly amount of brown together with a buff wing bar.

This is the best image showing a possible male Common or by it's other name a Mealy Redpoll. Significantly paler than the first image of a male Lesser Redpolls with a more white wing bar, the mantle still shows an amount of brown.

The size difference between the Lesser Redpoll and the Mealy Redpoll can clearly be seen in this image with the Mealy being a "fatter" bird

Image shows the Mealy Redpoll sat in a tree, usually the bird lands directly onto the feeders

Another image of the Mealy Redpoll this time showing more brown on the mantle than the previous image, maybe as a result of the light angle

The image shows the same male Mealy Redpoll on the left of the feeder and a female Lesser Redpoll on the right. Again the amount of brown is a concern for Mealy Redpoll identification

Last Day Before a Return to the Snow

A visit north today to the Santa Agueda Platforms, a prime location to view Spotted Eagle and other birds of prey over wintering at El Hondo. The platforms essentially are two wooden towers that over look the La Raja lagoon and reed beds on the South West of side of the El Hondo Reserve....today is a BOP day.

Arriving early it's again a brilliantly sunny day a bit nippy in the shade of the covered tower but in the sun it's around 16 degrees which can't be bad for a winter's morning. Marsh Harriers are quartering the reed bed, probably 6 to 8 birds, a Kestrel makes an appearance hovering in typical fashion looking for a meal, then a fellow photo tog points out 2 pale phase Booted Eagles that frequent the lower areas of El Hondo during the winter drifting slowly low over the reserve.

It's now late morning and still waiting for a first sighting of a Spotted Eagle, there were some great views from this location the previous week so we remain optimistic of an encounter. In front of the tower two Marsh Harries are mobbing a bird sat on a mud bank, a closer inspection through the reed's you can just make out a large dark bird, it's only when it flies to a near by tree that it's identified as a Spotted Eagle.

Whilst ranking up the Marsh Harrier sightings and also keeping a keen eye on the tree in which the eagle is perched a van appears along the track to the lagoon, it's a fisherman who promptly puts up the eagle, flies and lands on top a bush some hundred meters further way eventually heading off into the reserve.

After a quiet period I’m heading to the public hides overlooking Llevant Lagoon on the Vistabella Road, the sat nav takes me through a farming area near Monje and in a ploughed field sat at the top of a tree near the road I spot a Southern Grey Shrike, not one but two! stopping the car I grab the camera and fire off maybe fifty shots before the birds decide thats enough of that…was that lucky, you bet.

Vistabella Road hides are quite, apart from a couple of Booted Eagles, the ubiquitous Marsh Harriers theres little else of interest not like summer which is just a mega place of bird activity. Time to head back

It's late afternoon and my wife and I are heading back to the residence after a coffee down at the marina, heading through the orange groves I always have a look for Stone Curlew which can be found between the rows of trees, slowly I count 8, the next row 6 and so on, you get the drift they are every where, I get out of the car to get closer to the fence as you need to shoot through the fence, bad move, they all fly to the far side, plan B stay in the car. I manage some shot in the now low light, maybe next time.

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Stone Curlew

Pale Phase Booted Eagle

Southern Grey Shrike

Odds & Sods

Whilst photographing waders at the salinas I often see passerines that I’m not set up to photograph, on one such occasion a Stonechat was flitting on some dead reeds just out of range of the lens behind where I photographing waders so I decided set aside an couple of hours and try and get some shots.

A Stonechat had set up territory adjacent to one of my favourite wader locations but it meant  positioning myself more in the open where theres was absolutely no chance waders were going to come anyway near, not that I fined Stonechats that approachable.

I'm in position with camo scrim over me and the gear and wait, heaven knows what the local Spanish are thinking of my antics. After a period of time the bird seems to accept my presence not to concerned about the odd shape in the under growth, not too close but close enough to the bird to get some images.

Back at the carpark amongst the Tamarisk bushes there are quite few Chiffchaff scuttling about frantically feeding on the abundant insects, the background clutter isn’t particularly good but I get some close shots of a bird at close quarters that seem to elude me back in the UK. Also an shot of an immature Greater Flamingo that was paddling around in the shallows, nothing special but it did make me smile with its sticky up plumage

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Stonechat

Chiffchaff

Greater Flamingo

A morning with the Waders

The salinas at san Pedro being so close to the accommodation is probably the location I visit most, the species your most like to encounter being Gulls, Waders and Terns at the right time that’s not to say that you won’t see loads of other stuff through out the year. 

The more you explore a location you will undoubtedly have favourite locations, when it come to waders I have two, one is superb for light and reflective colour, the other you can just well, get mega close. All the Wader images below were shot at either of these two locations with the exception of the images of Sanderling on the beach which I refer to in a "Walk in the Sunshine"

I’m in position in probably my favourite spot for photographing waders, but there’s not much happening, sometimes you just have to wait and see what turns up. A group of Black Tailed Godwits are in the distance, I’ve never be able to get near these. Black Winged Stilts on the other hand are more obliging, I manage shots in real good light. A Greenshank drops in on the far side of the little cove, a little near would have been better but the shots are fine. Finally the ubiquitous Little Stint can drop in front of you at any time exactly what this bird did. Time to move on.

I’m now on the far side of the salinas, at times the wind can whip up the water so there are waves breaking onto the shore of a small bay, with patience and some concealment you can get real close to waders here.

A small group of Sanderling are energetically running up and down the shoreline sometimes running back and forth into the waves. Flying up the edge of the salinas I see a Common Sandpiper and it drops in the bay front of me promptly sent packing by the Sanderling, but I manage to rattle off some shots.

Next to appear is a Redshank which I sometimes find hard to get near, the bird is in good light with some nice pink and blue colour. Then I here the call…”tyew” it’s a second Greenshank of the day. Another wader I see more than any other turns up, it’s a Ruff with so many cool variations from black to vary pale, the bird fills the camera viewer as the lens has a 1.4 extender fitted.

Another grand day in the sunshine.

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Sanderling

Little Stint

Redshank

Black Winged Stilt

Greenshank

Common Sandpiper

Ruff