Off Piste (Part I)

 Yesterday was the archetypal Uming and Ahing sort of day with the wind still reaching gale-force proportions, the rain easing off to sporadic bouts of drizzle and the ‘rare bird’, that was hoped would linger until the weekend, still present at Longham Lakes. During one of those breaks, in the unweelcome elements, we were able to attend the 2 home-bound Moth Traps but only to find another

SILVER Y

a 'dark form' of
LARGE YELLOW UNDERWING

along with a couple of varying

BEADED CHESTNUT
          A fairly much curtailed rounds of the local patch was restricted to the banks of the Moors River where c25 Mallard were found, the first and only family

'regatta' or 'bevy', if you please, of

MUTE SWANs

along with and perched on its favoured gate a local

GREY HERON

now viewable because of so many fallen leaves.
With nothing else locally to entertain us it was the distant 15 minute drive to Lakeland.
The object of our desire had been reported 'present'  by the Dorset Bird Club for all of Saturday and with no problems in finding it as bumping into 'long lost' fellow birders

Jackie and Nick Hull who, having not been seen for over a decade, had their telescope firmly fixed on the totally undewhelming and not moving a muscle

GREEN-WINGED TEAL (right)
(doubt there is much point in addressing all the other excusses such as gale force wind directly into the ol' boat-race, reeds constantly blowing across the lens and at long distance) so we won't bother!

We have however received concerns from Steven Spielberg as he is part way through his own latest production! A small Duck from the America's of the same proportions as our own and common

EURASIAN TEAL
The most prominent identification feature seperating the 2 are the white leading and trailing edges to the 'speculum' which is the usually brightly coloured patch, most visible in flight, on the wing such as in this

MALLARD
which shows horizontal on our local ducks and vertical in

GREEN-WINGED TEAL
but that, although the target bird, was only just the begining. c3 species of Egret in a row and quick succession was started by the 'big daddy' of them all

GREAT WHITE EGRET

now well established at this site

and never shy of

craning their necks.

Next another scarce Egret that is quickly establishing itself in the county

CATTLE EGRET

which had proved reluctant to show

until the very last knockings.
The ever present

LITTLE EGRET

That was by no means all, with a 'tale of the unexpected awaiting in the wings, but
given the unstable weather patterns at the moment it is thought prudent to save that
for a second post, hopefully tomorrow.