Alton Water is the place we are heading for as a Red-necked Grebe has been reported along with Black-necked Grebe.
As it is a bit dark we divert to Christchurch Park in search of the long staying Tawny Owl.
The park had just opened on our arrival & on speaking to a groundsman he sends us in the right direction up the slope to some big Oak Trees, within minutes we had found the Owl sitting in a hole looking down at us, it never moved while we spent time looking at it apart from stretching out a large claw before tucking it back under it's feathers & giving us the eye.
Such a shame that the morning was really gloomy, that stops any good photos of a very accommodating bird.
A walk around the park gets us to a small pool that has some Mandarin & a few Goosander swimming around the small Island, we are told that a Kingfisher shows everyday but it never showed while we were here & we never gave it a lot of time as we needed to get to Alton Waters.
We drive down to the Eastern end of the Waters & park & scan the lake for the Target bird, we have no luck but do pick out 3 Black-necked Grebe & a single Great-northern Diver.
A quick drive to the other end of the lake gets us nothing of note.
The entire day proves to be a dull one with very little sunlight on show.
Never mind we plough on & head to Iken in search of a Cattle Egret, this is a fairly easy find once we located the farm. We spend some time watching the Egret feed among the cows & would of got some good photos if it had been a better day weather wise well when I say that I mean the boys would of got better photos.
After we had our fill of the Egret it's of to North Warren where we soon pick out 4 Spoonbills, sadly at a distance but good scope views. So 3 ticks for the day in the Tawny Owl, Cattle Egret & the Spoonbill, not the most productive birding day but a very pleasant one never the less.
 |
| The Mandarin |
 |
 |
| Just about the Black-necked Grebe |
 |
| Add caption |
 |
| Tawny Owl |
No comments:
Post a Comment