Paul 42
Monday 27th January 2003, 09:17
I don't know about you people but I find it helps to be optimist and sometimes be satisfied with very little when on an outing. Saturday afternoon Valerie and I tried out a new itinerary? slightly to the north of our usual haunts. I found it in a local bird guide, a tour by car round several private etangs (lakes). As these are owned by local hunting\fishing clubs they are surrounded by barber wire and dire warnins promising death to trespassers, which straight away is a bit off-putting!!! Now, whether it was time of day (mid afternoon), weather (freezing), the hunting season (lots of banging heard) - result- not much about. A few distant mallards, one etang home to a noisy party of coots, a Heron in flight at one spot. The most interesting sights for me were the gangs of little'uns in the surrounding hedges. Greenfinch, Yellowhammer, Chaffinch, Blackbird, Blue, Great, Long Tailed, Marsh Tits. Also Green Woodpecker and Nuthatch heard but not seen. A magnificent Kestrel hunting and a very pale morph Commun Buzzard (migrant from Scandinavia). Pssing the last etang I glimpsed a Little Egret, so stopped the car to look. I was intrigued by some flashes of white glimpsed through the curtain of reeds, thought of little limicoles. On approaching I was delighted to discover that it was a flock of White Wagtails feeding in the bottom of the emptied out etang. I watched them fascinated as they busily and noisely fed just in front of me (the missus wisely stayed warm in the car). So there you go, that made my birding day!!! No exotic ducks but I learnt that Wagtails form groups in winter to feed in the mud. I've never seen more than one at a time before. Still, I will try the outing again in a couple of months as I am promised Purple Heron and Marsh Harrier in the "belle saison". P.S. the next day the local paper reported a stork about five miles to the north of where we were at the same time, amidst much speculation on global warning. Right time, wrong place for us!!