Wednesday 7 January 2015

Wednesday 7th. January 2015

Having dropped Carol off at a friend's and with the weather decidedly on the turn , I stopped off for a look around Kelsey Park in Beckenham , in the hope of finding the Firecrest that was seen there last Monday . Having driven through rain to get there , the wet stuff caught up with me just as I got out of the car . I could almost see the bridge where the bird was sighted , but when I got there , the only
sighting was a very brazen Brown Rat feeding on some crumbs on the bridge , which only moved on when I got within touching distance . On either side of the bridge , a minimum of 19 Mandarin Duck were counted on The Beck along with a similar number of Mallard types . After about 15 minutes in the area , a lady stopped and surprisingly asked if I was looking for the Firecrest , as she had spoken to a couple of birders yesterday that were looking for it . As we talked she asked ' Is that it there ? ' . Looking into the what light there was , all I could make out was a small bird 'ballet dancing' in a nearby tree . ' Could be I replied ' and with that it flew back towards the bridge . The lady continued on her walk , and I headed towards the bridge . After a few minutes , a movement in a shrub caught my attention , and in the mirk , I finally managed to get binoculars on the bird and saw the orange
crest and more importantly , the white eye stripes . As usual with ' Crests ' , it didn't stop moving and that with the poor light made capturing any sort of shot almost impossible . I just tried to follow it , firing off shots , in the vain hope that it would come to rest . Most were rubbish , and many never even had the bird in them when looking back , but just one caught the bird , just before it moved off
again . After a couple of minutes it disappeared and even though I returned several times to the area , I never caught sight if it again . A walk around the lake and The Beck where it leaves the lake , found just the expected waterbirds , until I crossed the last bridge but one , and found a black duck with a
bottle green head , having a wash and brush up in The Beck , something I wasn't expecting . Even
more unexpected was when it had a shake down , revealing green and blue colouration all over . A group of walkers stopped as I was photographing it and asked what species it was . ' I haven't got a clue ' was my reply ' but I hope Google will be able to tell me when I get home ' . The duck seemed to
be part of a double act with an American Peking Duck type , one following the other's every move . My last shot was looking down The Beck from that bridge , with over half of the Mandarin seen
earlier , interspersed with some of the Mallard types . Back home , ' iridescent green duck ' was entered into Google and up popped Cayuga Duck , a resident of North America  and first seen I here at the Great Exhibition of 1851 . Almost definitely both escapees , but , could they possibly have teamed up with the American White Ibis at Sevenoaks Reserve for the flight over ??

2 comments:

Derek Faulkner said...

Apparently, in respect of the ducks, as well as laying 100-150 eggs a year, the early season eggs are coloured black, which is different.

Warren Baker said...

Well done with catching up with the Firecrest greenie :-) Your pics are as successful as mine were when I found one here! LoL