Monday 23rd. January ( Part 2 )

Well , for once the weather forecast was spot on , with the rain arriving just about 8 o'clock , and with it lightly to continue all day , there will be no outing for me today , so getting on with yesterday : Heading for the Tower Hide , good numbers of Chaffinches were found , mostly feeding on the ground , and even though they were all scanned , again , no sight of a Brambling . Just before the hide , a small flock of Redwing flew along the East Lake and shortly afterwards , the 'chak chak' of Fieldfares were heard beyond Slingsby Hide . First look from the hide produced 2 Teal , 2 Mallard a Coot and a Moorhen in the small bay directly below and 2 more Coot and 3 Tufted Ducks in the distance , where the reedbed meets the lake . Not very exciting , until I noticed a bird drift out from behind the reedbed and attempt to take over the occupancy of a floating log from one of the Coots . With vegetation in front , even with binoculars I couldn't make it out . I stayed put , and after a

while , this bird relinquished the log , and moved out into open water to have a wash and brush up , and could be identified as a female/redhead Goosander . After getting the drake a few visits ago , I

had read that up to three redheads had been seen , so it was good to finally catch up with one of them . It soon became apparent why it was keeping tucked away originally , as it seemed to attract

the attention of every gull that was in the air , here repelling another attack . It would have been nice if it had been a bit closer , but beggars can't be choosers . Whilst watching the Goosander , I caught a fleeting glimpse of a bird landing in a tree over by Slingsby hide , but it was too fleeting to get an

ID . I took a very long range shot of the tree , then hot-footed it over to Slingsby Hide , by which time of course , it had moved on . I suspected a Sparrowhawk , being as I had already had two sightings around Willow Hide , but cannot be sure . Thanks to Marianne and Warren for confirming my suspicion . The 'sentry' was on duty at Slingsby Hide , and in the tallest tree around , a Great Spotted Woodpecker was drumming his heart out , against a grey

sky , and being answered by another , somewhere back over by the Public Hide . From the hide , a Kingfisher 'flyby' , one of four today , but I didn't manage a shot from any of them . Heading back towards the car , large numbers of Lords and Ladies / Arum maculatum are already well above

ground level , and other species like Nettles , Ground Ivy and Cow Parsley are pushing through well too . I hadn't taken lunch with me , but I had put a banana and an energy bar in the car before leaving , and made do with that , as something was telling me to have another look at Willow Hide before leaving , encouraged by a couple of birders saying that they had several Kingfisher views from that hide . I gave Carter Hide a quick look , but apart from another Kingfisher sighting as soon as I arrived over the far side of the lake , it was just Coot , Moorhen and Tufted Ducks to show . Having found the Lords and Ladies earlier , I also had a look for a Winter Spring fungus that is found on the site . Although they are still young and small specimens , these Scarlet Elf Cups / Sarcoscpha

coccinea , they certainly brightened up a grey day .Arriving at Willow Hide , no the Bittern wasn't out on display again , but a small window of less grey sky enhanced the colours on two of the more

common species here , in the form of a drake Gadwall and a drake Teal , in a very fetching 'looking

over the shoulder' pose . Another birder made a short visit to the hide , informing me that he had just seen a Water Rail outside , but it had been spooked by a pair of Mallard , so I'm still waiting to see one here this Winter . Back on my own again , I was just about to pack in , when a bit of disturbance

started , just to the left of the island . I could see that a Cormorant was involved and it looked as if it had brought something up from underwater . I couldn't make out exactly what it was , but from distance it looked like a plastic bag or such . There ensued a lot of thrashing about and diving to

retrieve whatever it was , until the Cormorant reared up out of the water , with a very large fish in it's bill . There then followed an amazing period when the Cormorant charged around with the fish , which I could now see was a good sized Pike , that reminded me of the comedy act where a chap

dances with a doll which is attached to his feet , whilst at the same time , trying to swallow the Pike , that's the Cormorant , not the chap with the dancing doll . All this lifting and 'dancing' was obviously taking it out of the Cormorant , as several times it had to drop the Pike , take a breather , then dive down to retrieve it . I was beginning to think that with all the commotion , a Grey Heron or

something was going to enter the story , and probably make off with the Cormorant's intended meal . At one point , the Cormorant had well over half the fish in it's mouth , but the problem was , how was it going to get the other half in , especially as the bird was sinking under the weight of the Pike . When a second Cormorant turned up , the first spat out the Pike and it appeared as if they had a bit of a tussle underwater , with the Pike floating to the surface . When both Cormorants returned to the surface , they both swam away from the area reaching the middle of the lake , before both started diving some distance apart . The Pike seemed to just drift towards the left side of the island , totally ignored by both , so perhaps a Grey Heron did have the last laugh , and a full belly to boot . The moral of the story must be 'the eye is bigger than the belly' or in this case , the mouth . At the second time of trying , I got back to the car and this time headed home , stopping just briefly on the track out

to photograph one of a handful of Redwings high up in an ever gloomier sky .
And finally , whilst I was at Sevenoaks , Carol had 11 Fieldfares , on/around the Cotoneaster bush

next door , and this morning , in even worse light , five came back for breakfast , and I managed a shot of four of them . Later in the morning , the screeching of Rose-ringed Parakeets announced their

arrival above the berries , and I managed the same number of them in the frame .
Hedgelaying again tomorrow and probably Friday , but might manage to get out tomorrow .
And really finally , thank you for your suggestions to solve my Blogger problems .
ShySongbird , I have changed to the pop up comments page , fingers crossed . Thank you .
Mike H and Rob , I do already use Google Chrome as my browser , but thanks for the suggestion .
Warren , I don't really want to swap things over again , mainly because I don't really know what I'm doing when I try that sort of thing , but if needs must I shall remember your suggestion .