A Morning at Arlington Reservoir
I'd planned a mornings birding at Arlington today and woke up to a very foggy morning. After dropping the teenage children at their different busses (I live in the country and bus stops are two miles away, Sussex can be like that.) I set off for Arlington, wondering a bit if it would be a futile exercise and a waste of time due to the fog. Would I see anything? On arriving it was indeed very foggy, I was almost the first one there and you couldn't see across the reservoir let alone the mallards on the foreshore. But it did look hopeful though, the sun was trying to peak through the high cloud, it was just on the ground that visibility was only about twenty metres. Hmmm.
I decided to walk to the left, along the path and through the woods towards the hide and was immediately rewarded with a large flock of tits, :bounce: including about ten long tailed tits. They kept fluttering along in front of me but could I get a picture? No, I would love to know how people manage to photograph this specie, they never stay still for me and all my pictures of them come out as blurry blobs in the middle of leafy backgrounds. Lots of common birds, including meadow pipits, gold finch, chaffinch, all the way to the hide, it took me an hour to get there through the woods as the long tailed tits were so entertaining. Also I think being the first person along the path in the morning means you see more, nothing has been disturbed. I heard a kerfluffle in the undergrowth and a stoat scuppered out followed a minute later by a very large rabbit. Obviously the stoat didn't get his breakfast and the bunny lives another day.
Arriving at the hide and things were clearing up nicely and the sun was beginning to come out but nothing exciting, heron, cormerant, too many mallards, BH gulls, GBBGs, GC grebes, coot, moorhen, A couple of middle aged birders came in, stayed about five minutes and pronounced, "not much movement today" and left. I'd been there for over an hour watching, how could they be expected to be taken seriously? It was about ten minutes later that I spotted something unusual among the mallards and grebes. Swimming towards me were three unusual ducks which I soon realized were probably juvenile scaup I think, but I might be wrong. These are passage migrants in Sussex and not common so I hope I'm right. It's a first for me. Pictures below so if I'm wrong, apologies. (Comments welcome) They kept comming and swam up to the hide and sort of posed. Posted on the board in the hide was a sighting of 300+ gadwall only two days ago but they'd gone and I didn't see any.
An hour later and I was walking along the dam wall, didn't stay long as there was a cold wind but saw the only raptor of the day, a kestral, more meadowpipits, pied wagtails and one pochard who didn't look particularly happy hanging out with the mallards. This was the only one of the day. Canada geese were sparce today too, only nine, a big contrast to the last time I was here six weeks ago when there were well over a thousand. Through the bushes and behind the farm, more common species including the only one greenfinch of the day. This ties in with what others have been saying about the low numbers of finches, particularly greenfinches, in the South.
Thirty species, seen at Arlington today, not a huge number but an enjoyable day and made a change from my usual patch. :clap:
). Let me know if you want to meet up for spot of birding on Golf Course. Btw, I think Tufties too - tuft not always visible (hardly at all on juvs) but hard to tell the difference from pics though.
