Sunday 16 September 2012

Sunday 16th. September 2012

With the sun still shining , I had a couple of hours at Bough Beech Reservoir yesterday morning , arriving to find really good numbers of Martins , mainly House , but just a few Sand , feeding and calling over the causeway . I tried for a few shots , but they all ended up in the recycle bin , but then the feeding seemed to come to an end , and the Martins seemed to become fascinated with the tops of the Willows just below the causeway on the edge of the main reservoir . It seemed that every single bird  wanted to get perched in a very small area of Willow branches , which , given the numbers , was impossible . So what looked like a tag game started , with arriving birds pushing incumbent birds from their perches , then being pushed off themselves . This went on for some ten minutes or so ,
until the vast majority of the birds were either perched or very close to the tops of the Willows , this
shot showing just one area of the Willows , in which I can see 65+ birds , and the second an enlarged
shot of the centre section , in which I can see 20+ birds .Then , as if someone had made a loud noise , they all flew en masse , and that was the last I saw of the Martins . I just wonder if this behaviour was a banding together , before heading off on their long journey South . During the rest of my visit , several Swallows went through heading South , but only two more Martins , I suppose there always has to be late arrivals . I've never seen so many Martins together before , and definitely haven't witnessed this behaviour before either . With the Martins gone and most of the birds on site being way down on the righthand side of the main reservoir , it was a case of scratching around looking for interest . Down at the culvert on the North lake , a juvenile Grey Heron and a juvenile looking Little
Egret were squaring up to each other over ownership of the fishing rights in the culvert , but the Little Egret sensibly retired , leaving the larger Grey Heron with sole ownership . A single Green Sandpiper , a large flock of Pied Wagtails some 30+ in number , and a couple of distant Common
Snipe on the North Lake , together with a single Little and many Gt.Crested Grebe , a few Cormorant and the group way down the reservoir was as good as it got . Until I heard 'cronk-cronk' from over the woods , and in the distance appeared  Raven , followed closely by some of the local Jackdaws . I
thought it was going to head directly over the North Lake , but the attentions of the Jackdaws drove it further away . Eventually the Jackdaws gave up and headed back to their patch , and the Raven
carried on it's way , venting it's spleen with a few more 'cronks' , no doubt to let everyone know who's in charge . A Buzzard was heard , but not seen over the woods and just before heading up to the Oast House / Visitor Centre , a Kingfisher sped across the road and down the stream that runs into the North Lake . Another Common Buzzard was soaring over the distant fields on my arrival , and strangely enough , another brief Kingfisher sighting as I crossed the bridge . Withe the car park full , I didn't go to the hide overlooking the scrape , instead spent some time photographing some of the Odonata around the bridge area . Lots of Migrant Hawker on the wing , mostly males , and some had
managed to find and catch a mate , like this one in the'ring' . Also found in the 'ring' , were a pair of
Common Darter almost lost in the jumble of a Hawthorn hedge . A male Brown Hawker was also in the area , much to the annoyance of the Migrant Hawkers , and when it finally came to rest , it was
obvious that it was a hardened veteran of many aerial skirmishes , having lost a good part of one of it's rear wings in the fray . All in all not a bad visit , but , what might have been had I decided on another early morning visit to Sevenoaks Reserve , where out left of Willow Hide , I read a Little Bittern was sighted , albeit briefly , before flying off .
And finally , with no more observations on the mystery bird at Shellness , I would like to thank ShySongbird , Warren and Mike.H for their input , and hope that if it turns up again , I can manage to get a better shot for identification .

4 comments:

Marc Heath said...

Great account Greenie, nice to see the Dragonfly shots.

Warren Baker said...

Greenie,
Ive seen House Martins do what you saw today, but I dont know the reason for it!

Lots of House Martins going over the fields here today (Sunday)

ShySongbird said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
ShySongbird said...

First of all apologies Greenie for giving you sightings of Merlins seen at Elmley when it was in fact Shellness where you had seen the raptor. I had read it correctly when I made my first comment and suggestion but by the next day, when I had the idea of looking to see what sightings there had been of Merlins in the area, I got muddled, thinking it was Elmley!

Your photo of all the Martins was fascinating, I remember seeing somewhere once that someone had around 500 perched all over their house, roof, windows, anywhere they could perch, apparently it looked like something out of Hitchcock's 'The Birds'

I loved the photo of the Grey Heron and the Little Egret showing just how tiny the latter is.