Raven Ravine - Genesis

Nights continue to be chilly so we were quite expecting everything to be frozen during the last couple of days. Lucky thing was, when its not shining directly in your eyes, there was also uninterrupted sunshine throughout daylight hours with the ice/frost readily turning to melt water.

 Here comes the Sun, Here comes the Sun

and I say it's alright!

The Beatles

But it was still early and would take time to soften things up below.

BLACKBIRD and ROBIN

waiting on the Solar Panels and watching for movement below.

Irrigation Pond

solid as a rock

and these young 'dark morph'
PHEASANTS

having the same problems as everything else.

Gravel Pit

ditto to above and similarly not a Waterfowl in sight.

 Best plan was thought to be heading for the Heath but one thing

we just cannot get our heads round - how do the Birds know

when you are about to/or just have pressed the shutter and fly off??

 The other of only c2

STONECHAT

recorded did stay ad was marginally more obliging, but for all the chill

 the Trees look fantastic in their coating of tinsel.

 An opportunist shot of a passing

RAVEN

as we were exiting before giving things a couple more hours to thaw out.

Had we done a little more 'thinking' and a good deal less 'cackling'

with some of the people we met at Longham on the last day of November,

 we may not have had to make a return visit to secure video footage

of the c3 

GREAT WHITE EGRET

which very luckily decided to stay put.

So, to utilise the waiting period that is precisely what we did and 

immediately managed to capture all 3 Egrets together (top image) 

which we didn't do on our first visit.

That Good Start was very quickly followed by a Bad Start as a

mist rolled in from nowhere, blotting out everything.

 Luckily it was short lived and as it lifted it was found that one of

the Egrets had shifted position.

Good for comparison in size between

Great White Egret and Little Egret,

but as we have the 'shakes' when drinking a coffee in the

warmth and comfort of

Slight Return II

what chance holding a camera steady, without a support, 

at passed 3 'o' clock on a

Cold and Frosty Morning

Good Morrow Masters All!

 A short interlude as a

CORMORANT

flew over and back to the original spot.

Timed to perfection, we were even lucky enough to catch a 

GREY HERON 

sneaking out of cover as well.

On our return to Parley Court Farm

more on a hunch than anything else we entered the 

Eco Recycling Works

rather than passing it by and saw what we had hoped to see, a

 FERAL PIGEON

 which (maybe surprisingly) is an addition to the

Ongoing November List.

In company was also a young

STOCK DOVE

As hoped, at the Gravel Pit we found a few

EURASIAN TEAL

taking advantage of the melt contentedly feeding in the margins,

and which were found to be a record count for this end of the year, c15 in total,

and how nice to see the males in full adult/winter plumage

sporting their gold quarter patches!

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