Drizzle, Disputation and a Murmuration

Bird News: Ibsley Water - goldeneye 1 (redhead), rock pipit 1, water pipit 1 (reported), yellow-legged gull 6.

Ivy Lake - starling c5000 to roost.

I waited for much of the day for it to get light today, it was murky, grey and drizzling for much of it, when the drizzle stopped it rained, although we did get a little sunshine in the end. This made for a poor day to see much and even worse for getting pictures of very much. I did take the chance to visit all the hides today and in the process finally saw the goldeneye which has been reported for a few days now.

At the Goosander hide there was quite a bit of grebe activity. Close to the hide 2 little grebe were feeding and the clear water allowed me to see them swimming underwater.

There was also quiet a dramatic scrap between two great crested grebe, one chased the other so much that it eventually took refuge on the shore, a very unusual thing for it to do as they are very poor at getting about on dry land. I got a really poor picture, my excuse is distance, low light etc., etc. If you look closely you can see one on the shore to the right-hand side and one in the water, as a bonus there are also 2 green sandpiper in the shot as well, although I would forgive anyone who cannot make them out!

I was also quite pleased to see another species using the perching rails, this time a cormorant, sadly without any rings.

Despite the gloom I did see a migrant hawker dragonfly int he Centre car park, hunting in the drizzle, although it was wet it was also very mild. At lunchtime a rock pipit at the Tern hide was a bonus, I heard later that a water pipit had been reported early in the morning as well, although that would have been on the eastern shore somewhere.

Right at the end of the day when I was locking the Ivy South hide the starling flock was good value over the lake wheeling and twisting, I estimated about 5000. I hope there will be some good opportunities to get pictures of them, with the grey cloud tonight was not ideal but, but you can see that there are a lot of birds out there. They were chattering and squealing, just as a good murmuration of starlings should.

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