A Ring-necked duck on a circular tour! Monday 29 March 2010

On Monday 29 March I planned a circular tour hoping to get up to my last year's total for the end of March, 145. I was on 144.

I started off at Aston Rowant NNR just off the M40 near Watlington, where a ring ouzel had been seen. I didn't see this potential lifer but I did see a nice female yellowhammer and of course some red kites. Watlington is the place for them. The red kite was year tick.

Female yellowhammer.

I moved on to Foxcote Reservoir for the ring-necked duck. Access was a little difficult via a public footpath which could only be accessed through a farmyard and the farmer wasn't too happy. He told me I should go to the hide 700m away. I asked if I could see the water from the public path and he told me I could but there were no rare birds there. I said I would just have a quick look. I quickly got onto the ring-necked duck on the far side of what was a fairly small reservoir. I got a very distant record shot and decided to move on as I had far to go.

Ring-necked duck.
Distant record shot.







Next stop was the RSPB headquarters at Sandy in Bedfordshire where a two bar crossbill had been around for a couple of days. I got there and it had been seen with a flock of about 40-50 common crossbills. I'd never seen so many crossbills but they proved elusive and, although a flock of about 20 flew in we couldn't see the two-bar. After about an hour I decided to move on but I then met a man who said the two-bar was showing well on the other side. The reserve isn't that big so I raced around but the bird had just flown. Then the flock came into a distant but bare tree and after a little scanning, I made out the two-bar crossbill. A nice year tick.


It was getting late. Although it was a two hour drive, I decided to go for the lesser kestrel at Minsmere RSPB, where Nick, local birder, had already been this morning and seen it. About half an hour into the jouney, it started to rain and it didn't stop. It was raining when I arrived and the lesser kestrel hadn't been since it had started to rain at about 3pm. I stayed only 10 minutes. After checking the forecast was rain for the rest of the day, I decided to call it a day and go home. With the red kite, ring-necked duck and two-bar crossbill I ended March on 147.

Saturday, 7 March 2009, South Coast

Went to the South Coast today with David Campbell. Our target birds were the great grey shrike in the New Forest, the purple sandpipers at Southsea Castle, the red-breasted goose at West Wittering and the white-fronted goose at Tundry pond.

After a 1 hour 45 min circular walk there was no sign of the shrike! We did, however, see a nice pair of Dartford warblers, a pair of grey wagtails and a lovely male hen harrier. The harrier landed, which gave me a chance to get my camera out. I switched on and pressed the shutter. Nothing happened! I'd taken the battery out last night to charge and it was still on the charger at home! I did have spares in the car - half a mile away!

On to Southsea Castle in Portsmouth where we had better luck. We instantly found the six purple sandpipers on the shore at low tide. This bird was a lifer for me and for David, so we spent some time observing and photographing them. They were quite tame and allowed us to get to within a few metres.

Purple sandpiper, Southsea Castle.

After lunch at the local tea rooms and seeing a goldcrest, we pressed on to West Wittering for the red-breasted goose. We were again lucky. We found the goose very quickly amongst the 1,000 or so Brent geese and it was fairly near the front of the mass so it was possible to see it largely unobstructed by the brents. Another lifer for me.

Red-breasted goose, W. Wittering.

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At one point it took flight, did a circuit, and landed much further back. I was not so quick to get some flight shots and it was already quite a way away before I got focus lock on it.

Red-breasted goose in flight.

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We noticed that there were no reports of the white-fronted geese that day so we decided to try for the ring-necked duck I had seen at Bordon in January. We arrived at the gravel pits but I wasn't sure of the way. We strayed from the public footpath and the quarry owner (no less) chased us in his tractor to tell us off. Our apology was, thankfully, accepted and he then directed us to the pits where the duck might be. It was there, albeit rather distant. After a few minutes we walked back to the car and came home. I had four year ticks (total 131, or 132 including a barnacle goose) and two lifers.

Ring-necked duck.