It had been a busy day on Saturday and when my wife said she was going for a walk with friends (and then a drive with our youngest), I decided to make for RSPB Otmoor as a ruddy shelduck had been showing for a number of days. As I drew into the car park, I met Sandra and Adrian Bletchly; they confirmed that the ruddy shelduck was still showing at first screen, as was a juvenile black-necked grebe. Apparently they hadn't seen anything else of note and suggested just making for first screen directly.
Arriving at the screen there were a couple of people already in residence. They communicated that a number of cattle egrets had showed closely but had departed shortly before I arrived. Two kingfishers had also shown well.
It wasn't difficult to pick out the ruddy shelduck and so I quickly got my tick. The black-necked grebe wasn't so easy to locate but it was pointed out and stopped me scanning beyond the actual location. The bird wasn't diving but scurried around the teal and mallard duck, emulating their feeding behaviour; quite a difference from the summer plumaged birds we'd seen at Pitsford Water.
There was a solitary oystercatcher out in the shallows, and a number of little egrets and little grebes - eventually some cattle egret landed in the bushes at the back of the pool but never close enough for a photo.
I talked with another birder - Louise Donovan - who had captured some cracking shots of a cattle egret when it had been closer - later I came across her post on Twitter. She had also captured some great shots of the shelduck before I arrived - particularly interesting to see the colour under the wing.
I didn't stay long and beat my wife home - she wouldn't know I'd abandoned my post!
No comments:
Post a Comment