Arlington Reservoir with fellow BFer, Joanne
matt green said:
what an enormous...................ovipositor
didn't one of those eat bill oddie alive a few years ago!
matt
and was persecuted almost to the point of extinction as a consequence I believe , Matt
'Up With the Robin'
After failing miserably to meet Joanne on time (or even close to it) for our last birding day together, I decided to get a really early start and try and get there for sunrise. Out of bed at 5.00am, sandwiches made, quick look at BF and off to the Station for 6.15am train to Brighton. Unfortunately, first train to Berwick didn't leave until 7.30am, so I caught the train to Lewes and waited there instead for the connection. The sun was almost up, and a bit of birding on the platform brought a flock of
Long-tailed Tits amongst various other common stuff. The large number of
carrion crow positioned at various strategic points on the station building had all the elements of a Hitchcock drama (minus screaming school kids fortunately).
To travel through an early Autumn English countryside, with low lying mist shrouding fields at sunrise, through a landscape soaking and shining in heavy dew, is an experience many UK birders have enjoyed and it's one I most enjoy from the comfort of a train. There are already signs of avian activity, a
sparrowhawk on the wing, large flocks of gulls and wood pigeons taking an early morning preen in the damp grass. Above the rolling mist, the sky turns to cobalt and gives way to dusky pink and yellow at the horizon as the sun climbs wearily out of bed and up onto it's weak knees.
It's just after sunrise and still early. The Reservoir, looking like a Japanese landscape painting (your comments above were spot on Matt, that's exactly how it looked to me at the time), was awash with pastel colours with mist rising from the water, slowly warming as the sun touched it's glassy surface. The singing of
Robin, Great Tits and
Blackbird herald in the new day and Arlington's rabbit, large by any standard, bob in and out of the clumps of teasels and ragwort. I move onto the upper (and much more used path) to avoid breaking the hundreds of jewelled spider webs stretching across the tall grasses. A small flock of
goldfinch out for an early morning feed on the teasel heads and numerous
starling in their hundreds, join the corvids perched high up along the power lines turning them into beaded jet necklaces stringing the fields.
Anything on the Reservoir water itself is either obscured by mist or still asleep. Several
Great Crested Grebe most with heads still tucked away, a few
Coot and
Moorhen strutting along the bank -otherwise it's very quiet (and peaceful), as I make my way up from Willow Point to the Osprey Hide at the north end of the site. The first
Kestrel of the day, hovers near the edge of the woods. There seem to be very few passerines but I get the feeling this should be a good day for BoP. Not so lucky with the Osprey it seems though - apparently seen yesterday I was later to discover, but made no appearance today. Views from the Hide (while eating half my lunch for the breakfast I didn't have), one pair of
Pochard, trying to avoid a pair of squabbling drake Mallard. Two
Cormorant and a
Grey Heron stretching it's stiff legs, there is little about other than some 50+ dozy
mallard, some of who's parentage is rather dubious albeit wearing an attractive mix of plumage.
Joanne phones from her mobile. Although we had arranged to meet at the entrance at 9.30am, she is happy to walk up to the Hide and meet me there. She reports
Canada Geese have just arrived and a Kestrel at the lower end of the Reservoir - I report a 'bunch of Yucks'.
The magnified views through my new scope compared to my binos takes away the disappointment of the lack of anything of much interest to actually see through it - It's ideal for the Hide, easy to move around and the table-top tripod fits comfortably on the wooden 'breakfast bar' once I've managed to stop the legs from collapsing. While I'm messing around and trying to digi-scope a mallard by trying to hold the camera in one hand up against the lens of the scope, and the tripod legs in another to stop me knocking the whole thing onto the floor, Joanne spots a pair of waders. Seeing them clearly with my newly magnified vision, they are
Common Sandpiper. The optics are good (enough for me!), light and colour is a really added benefit for Iding distant birds. Have dragged my camera tripod with me today, but left the plate attachment screwed onto my SLR which is at home, so that was a fat lot of good but manage to balance it on top for a while later in day!
I pop out for 10 minutes leaving Joanne in the Hide watching more Canada Geese arrive at the far end of the Reservoir. A flock of
Mipits are being very vocal on the dam wall, and there is another
kestrel (male) perched half a mile away, high up on a Pylon.
Pied Wags are everywhere and chirping about as usual and on the way back to the Hide, I spot my only
Willow Warbler of the day, (in a willow tree of all the places
)
We debate whether to go to Birling Gap or Cuckmere for the afternoon, as there is little showing at Arlington and we wander down to the Dam Wall. A large flock of corvid and BHG take to the air behind woods at the southern end of the site. Scoped views show a male
Marsh Harrier amongst them. I stay on it, as it makes its way south down the valley towards Newhaven finally shaking the mobbing crowd. I spot around 40+
Lapwing fly over Reservoir towards us - hope your pic came out ok Joanne). A couple of birders appear and had noticed the mob from as distance as they were driving towards the Reserve. A good chat, exchange of info (well more from us really), Joanne and I decided to stay on and eat our lunch on the dam wall. My feeling it would be a good day for BoP was beginning to pay off. The birders returned later to find Joanne and I, cloud gazing. I had spotted a group of 5
buteos very high up and we were trying to get closer views through binos and scopes. Needless to say, I couldn't get my scope on them at all. What I did get were good scoped views of fuzzy clouds and empty sky, close ups of the dam wall, a house somewhere in another County, the back of Joanne's head, and a large indeterminate expanse of water - gonna need a lot more practice with using a handheld scope to Id highflying raptors! Bino'd views however, did show 2 of the group had apparently longer wings than the others and different flight/glide position of wings. There have been several Hunnies in area, so that was possible. The other birders had missed the whole thing completely, returning just as the buzzards disappeared but hung on with us for another 10 minutes. I pointed out another
Kestrel and
Sparrowhawk, and they spotted a
Hobby that showed briefly which Joanne and I both missed.
Another chat with some different birders, 2 novices which had just come back from Spain and were newly hooked then a long discussion with two SE Water site workers about over river extraction (me :king: ), the great benefits of hosepipe bans (them) and situation of reservoir levels in SE England (all of us). We weren't getting much birding done, and I felt the need to move on.
Joanne had to get back a short while later and we parted company after watching yet another Sparrowhawk fighting off a pair of persisent crow. I decided to take another walk round and back to the Hide before heading home. My only
Reed Warbler of the day briefly showed in reed beds at Willow Point and another low hunting Buzzard was over the woods on the west side of the Reservoir.
All in all a good day for accipitors but very few passerines, ducks or waders. Nature has a way of filling in the gaps though and the weather was glorious from dawn til dusk.
Some of Species seen:
Marsh Harrier x 1
Buzzard x 6
Kestrel x 4
Sparrowhawk x 3
Heron x 4
Cormorant x 9
Lapwing x ca.40
Canada Geese x ca. 1,800 (minus 4 later :-C )
Greylag Geese x 6
Farmyard white Geese x 2
Great Crested Grebe x ca.15
Pochard x 2
Mallard (and Hybrids)
Common Sandpiper x 2
Willow Warbler x 1
Reed Warbler x 1
Meadow Pipit
Pied Wagtail
Plus usual common birds ...
