Friday 12 December 2008

Cosmeston - Rusty Duck (250 up!!)

I was down in South Wales on taxi duty with Gemma (attending a swim camp in Swansea). With reports of a very obliging Bearded Tit (and elusive drake Ferruginous Duck) not far away near Penarth, I thought it would be worth a try....

Cosmeston Lakes nature reserve is a nicely laid out nature reserve complete with decent sized lakes and reedbeds.

Reed Bunting were showing well, busy stripping the seeds from the reeds








The Bearded Tit was certainly equally obliging to look at but either too close or constantly obscured by reed stems to photograph!!! After numerous attempts, I gave up on the idea and walked around to the West Lake where the Ferruginous drake had last been seen - skulking in the far reed beds.

After 15 mins of no show, this had all the hallmarks of a bad day until something (a fox was in the area) flushed everything in sight out of the reedbed!! Great stuff - it look only a few moments to suss out the 'rusty one' amongst the 60 odd Pochard present......






He's obviously got an eye for the ladies!













A bit of preening and posing for me....












A very nice bird to bring up the 250 for the UK yearlist!! Just one of many fantastic birds seen during what will definitely be, a year to remember.....