Christmas Eve arrived and Kevin Heath (@kev07713) and I decided to meet up for a couple of hours before arranged lunches with friends and/or family. With just a small window of opportunity we decided to stay local and met at the Spiceball car park at 7.45am, just as light was breaking.
Reaching the edge of the reservoir Kev mentioned the word kingfisher - and there it was - I pointed it out to him as it landed on the nearest lifebuoy. It was still not officially sunrise for another 25 minutes, but I took a photo anyway.
Kev scanned the water and noted that the red-crested pochard was still here - an unusual bird as they are normally only a day visitor here. On the opposite bank was another kingfisher perched on the railings and looking like it was actively fishing. The river that runs alongside the reservoir is in flood and opaque with the mud and silt it carried and hence why the kingfishers are frequenting the reservoir more than usual. We had 14 cormorants, a couple of great-crested grebes and nine tufted ducks.
We walked along the eastern side stopping to get views of the red-crested pochard and then strolled on to a spot with alders on the riverbank. We could pick out goldfinch but no siskins or redpoll. Following us along the path came Gareth Blockley (@grimsbury_birds) - Kev jokingly asked what he was doing on our patch - Gareth runs the Grimsbury Birds blog and with John Friendship-Taylor (@987jonty) keeps us all up to date with visitors to the reservoir. We stopped and chatted for a while - I saw the red-crested pochard drift in closer to the shore and walked a short way back to see if I could upgrade by photo now it was a bit lighter (and closer).
I returned to join Kev and Gareth and as we resumed our chat Gareth picked out a pair of Egyptian Geese approaching from the west. They turned and flew along the cattle field still on the west and eventually over the boathouse at the far end - and away. A nice morning tick to add to the exotic red-crested pochard.
A chap walking his dog stopped to talk to Gareth - I'd seen him before, and he had bins round his neck - no doubt a regular watcher and a source of information for Gareth. We bid Gareth farewell and made for the wood at the north end where we stopped beside another group of alders hoping for a siskin … but there were only goldfinches. We heard a call and then followed a siskin as it flew in along the river. It landed at the top of one of the alders - it was visible through our bins but not really close enough for a photo and against the sky. As it left, we picked up a couple of goldcrests flitting about the treetops with chaffinches - the frenzied feeding habits of goldcrests are always an entertaining watch.
To be honest the remainder of the visit through the woods yielded only the usual suspects but it was nice to see song thrush, wrens and a bullfinch.
Time was getting on and so we made our way back to the cars stopping to watch eight siskins feeding high in a tree near the entrance. A great way to start the day - now for some friends, family, food and drink.
Year List: 232
BirdTrack Record: https://app.bto.org/birdtrack/pubcon/shared?subId=SUB46325961
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