Monday 16th. December 2013

An awful wet and windy day kept me indoors today , but it did give me the chance to catch up with processing the photos from recent outings . As it was so miserable outside , it was nice to look back on some early morning shots on Saturday , just as the sun was creeping over the trees and onto the North Lake at Bough Beech . A sneak up behind the hedge on the causeway , fortunately with no one else about , found four redhead Goosanders , but being true wild birds , they very quickly spotted me , and they were paddling off to the island at the far side of the lake .

The main reservoir , although still as a millpond , held very few wildfowl apart from those still dozing amongst the now flooded trees around the edges . A quick look around the orchard and feeders found a few Fieldfares feeding on the fallen apples , but no sign of the Brambling or Marsh

Tit that I was hoping to find , but a male Shoveler was showing well on Roy Coles scrape . Heading back to the causeway , at least the Geese were waking up , with small numbers of Canadas and

Greylags passing overhead . A look over the North lake found the 4 redheads diving for their
breakfast , still well out by the island , and on the main reservoir , four more Goosander , two males

and two redheads this time , but they were even further away from the camera .
A short visit the previous week to Kelsey Park , Beckenham , found my first Blue-crowned Parakeet for best part of a couple of years , high in a London Plane tree . Easily identified by it's more Parrot-

like call , rather than the high pitched squawk of their relations the Rose-ringed . As can be seen , the sun was wrong , and as I tried to get around to the right , it took flight and disappeared into the local gardens . The visit also produced at least a dozen Mandarin Ducks , with the males , like this one ,

just more numerous than the less colourful females .
And finally , the male Blackcaps are still regular visitors to the Callicarpa bush , but we haven't seen

the female again . The berries are going quickly and some acrobatics are needed at times . Carol tells me I missed a cracking shot whilst working up on the Common on Thursday , in lovely sunshine , the male Blackcap and a Robin , side by side amongst the berries .