Chelmarsh Reservoir - Pied-billed Grebe

I've had a few lucky moments now and then but this is right up there with the best of them and lasted for less than a minute! Well done Tom Lowe for finding this Pied-billed Grebe, I was happy just to see it and then this happened... I have no words - just a few images...   

On this Day (June 7th)... 2009 Wood Sandpiper

It's never too late for a good wader to drop in... Wood Sandpiper at Chelmarsh Scrape on June 7th 2009

Crikey, as if one decent bird wasn't enough, this stormy weekend continued to produce! Wet + miserable = good birds? With Andy covering Mire lake (big clear out there), myself checking Venus Pool (Black tailed Godwit and two Common Terns through), it was Yvonne who hit the jackpot with a cracking find - Wood Sandpiper on Chelmarsh scrape! Not surprisingly, I was over there with Andy quite smartly - the bird was instantly obliging - record shots in the gloom and continuous rain were duly taken. Such a busy bird too, methodically covering much of the scrape, constantly picking up small insects from the water surface. 

A call back later that evening produced a few more shots - the light was better although the bird was backlit viewed from the 'ringers' hide. 

Almost needing a machete, I managed to break through the jungle surrounding the far hide! At least the light direction was better for photography from here but the Wood Sand a bit distant. A great bird nevertheless, best images of this species I've managed to date and thinking back - just like the Curlew Sandpiper, the first one I've had in Shropshire outside of the Autumn period! 

It's June and three more year ticks added to the County year list in a 36 hour period (two of these UK year too!) What is going on.......

On this day (June 4th)... 2012 Gannet!!

One of the most unexpected birds of recent years was this wind blown Gannet, found the previous day and still there #OnThisDay  June 4th 2012

It had to be a repeat visit with no rain and hopefully the Gannet was destined to stay overnight? It did!
The light was better and here's a representative sequence (it was mostly sat distantly on the water during the 5 hour session!)

Heading my way.....

The upperwing has to be the most appealing view!

Not always easy to remain locked on the Gannet with trees in the background but they show off the bird much better than white sky!

Only a couple of fish were caught during the session - too distant to record!

Chelmarsh reservoir - Great Northern Diver

A second visit to the reservoir late morning was a little more productive on the image front... The Great Northern Diver was roaming the whole reservoir but eventually I caught up with it fishing within 100m - a whole lot better then 400m away!!

In fact on a couple of occasions, it came much closer than that!

Not a lot of variety other than a turn of the head!

And clearly heading in the right direction!

It's a juvenile with characteristic fringes to the feathers giving the scaly appearance...

Having spent two three hour sessions over the past 24 hours, nice to get some sort of reward despite the gloom and rain!

Chelmarsh Res - Little Bittern!!!

The story starts on the afternoon of Friday 6th July at Chelmarsh reservoir where John Reeves was checking out vain hopes of a Garganey at the causeway? Little did he know,  a bigger jackpot was in store from the reedbed however! It wasn't a bullfrog, nor a small dog but the unmistakable barking of a Little Bittern!!

I joined him with a few other locals at 2:45  and the long process of actually seeing it began! At one stage it was less than 20m off the causeway, you could see the reeds twitching but impossible to see! It wandered further round to the left, eventually covering some 100m +.  Patience was rewarded however when at 9:50 that evening we were treated to a one and only brief flight view! And no images sadly - excellent views of the bittern were had however as I was scanning the exact spot it emerged from!

Fast forward to Sunday morning and after having shown well on the Saturday, I picked up Dave Chapman at 4.15am with hopes of a repeat performance? Here's a view of where it flew in after roosting further up the pool, there's no way you can get close, so patient scanning of far reed bed where it was barking, was the order of the day!

And eventually we were all rewarded with decent scope or camera viewfinder views!

Sometimes quite acrobatic clinging onto the flimsy reeds...

 And eating a flying morsel or two?

 We had to wait until 9:30 for the LB to emerge and reveal it's amazing colours!

A plane flying over seemed to unnerve it and it wasn't long before if flew in front of the reed bed towards the causeway!

Here's the sequence...

Levelling out across the water...

And then diving back into cover some 50m away from where it took off...

Here it is before total emergence, it should only take a second or two to find it? Might be the only fleeting view you get?

Job done, Dave and I called it a day some 9 hours later, celebratory Magnum (the cold variety not champagne) and the most unlikely county tick you could imagine in the bag. Well done Reevesy!!!

Chelmarsh - Hobby Food

The keen eyed amongst you will obviously know that I haven't put an image of a Migrant Hawker on the blog this year! Whilst sat idly waiting in the hide for a Hobby to appear or (vainly) for the Ruff to return, that was all about to change - I spotted a male Migrant Hawker flying near the reeds. Now there's a challenge!

Eventually a few half decent flight shots emerged (I wont mention how many shots were deleted though !)





Different background......





And again.....



Head on....



Where's the Common Darter then? Have to say I'm pleased with this one - don't think I've ever captured one of these in flight before....



The food's on the table then, where's that Hobby!