Greenwater Rafting

Volunteer Thursday and for once the weather was at best alright, at least at first, fortunately the wind was light, important as the task was to tow out and moor some of the vegetated rafts. The next eight were planted up with a mix of plants gathered from the edge of the lake.
I tried to find a range of locations to moor them, some sheltered and near the shore, some well out and exposed. I want to see how they stand up to the conditions and how the different plants cope in the different locations. I'm not quite sure what I was doing in the picture, but it must have been very considered and important to the task in hand, despite appearances to the contrary.

The young drake smew was on Ivy Lake, up near the Ivy North hide, so well away from our rafting antics. More surprisingly, as I was towing a raft across the lake I saw the great grey shrike flying over the water and landing in a tree on the south shore. I had assumed we had seen the last of it now that the lizards are out and about on the heaths.

By the time we had finished the sun was out and the afternoon was as good as any so far. I have seen a couple of species of solitary bees on the sandy banks by the Dockens Water and had a quick look out on the lichen heath to see if there were any there. I found none, but there were several tiny plants of common whitlowgrass in flower. There were a few honey-bees visiting the gorse flowers the strong scent of coconut from which could be detected at some distance.

The warm sun was also responsible for coaxing out my first grass snake of the year. Otherwise there was rather little to report, 45 or so sand martin over Ibsley Water and several singing chiffchaff were the only migrants, despite a bit of a search there was still no sign of a little ringed plover.

Winners!

Today's big news is that Blashford Lakes won the bird count in the Large Wetland section of the BTO - EDF Energy Business Bird Challenge. We recorded 169 species, just three ahead of our nearest rival, Top Hill Low in Yorkshire, who had been ahead of us as we wnet into the last quarter. Many thanks to all who sent me records, Simon's long-eared owl and goshawk were two of the ones that got us ahead. The biggest count at any site was from Rutland Water with 206 species, I'm glad we are not in the same category as them as we could never compete with that kind of total.

A misty start and little to see from the Tern hide, still no sign of a little ringed plover, surely it cannot be much longer. The Ivy North hide came up trumps though with the young drake smew diving under the trees on the eastern shore. I was a bit surprised by this as all the reports I had for the last few days had suggested that only the female had been seen. Heading toward the Woodland hide I solved the "Unknown drummer", it was just a great spotted woodpecker, although one with and unusual drum, quite unlike the others also drumming at the same time.

This morning's task was to get in the small stick rafts used by great crested grebe and coot for nesting. The ones out on Ivy Lake were in a sorry state after a harsh winter and in great need of replenishment. I rowed out and lifted the mooring weights and pulled the rafts back in shore to the Ivy South hide where a willing volunteers added stick bundles. These are real deluxe models, based around discarded lifebelts, with a cage of old wire mesh and a broken paving slab for ballast, but they have worked really well over the last few years.
At lunchtime I remembered to check the moth trap, I got sidetracked earlier by the fact that the bird ringers were in this morning. There were a lot of moths, thanks to the mild night, the majority were small Quaker with 137 individuals. There was a single engrailed, my first this year, although I know one or two have been caught on days I have not been in. There was also another dotted chestnut, but as I have already posted a picture of one of those this year I will go for the engrailed now.

The afternoon was mostly taken up with getting the materials together for tomorrow's volunteer task, we will hopefully be working on the vegetated rafts.

I received a report of a bittern seen flying over Mockbeggar Lake today, there have been occasional records there for much of the winter. A few sand martin were seen over the bank at the Goosander hide and I saw a pair of shelduck on Ivy Lake and perhaps the same on Ibsley Water. There was also a general singing of chiffchaff on various parts of the reserve today, always a gladdening early spring sound.

A Drab Day and Dormice Domiciles

A cold north-east wind still keeps the migrants away, although if there were any looking up Ibsley Water from the Tern hide is quite hard work. The water pipit was there again at both the start and finish of the day as were the pied wagtails. Otherwise walking round to open up was fairly quiet, the 2 smew were on Ivy lake from the Ivy North hide. I went round filling the bird feeders, saw few birds but did come across the bracket fungus pictured below growing from a smallish log lying on the ground.
The moth trap had few moths but a good range of species including one with possibly the most exciting name of any moth, the northern drab, or at least that is what I think it is. It does not quite look right for the almost as thrillingly named lead-coloured drab, but I could be wrong.

There were also a couple of clouded drab, these are very variable and colour is little guide to identity, but all are the same shape and size and somehow still manage to look "the same".

The closely related common Quaker also comes in a fair range of shades but is similarly still quiet distinctive for all that.

After a range of odd jobs, the main task of the afternoon was putting out twenty five dormouse tubes. If you have been following the blog you may remember we put up a number of dormouse boxes a while ago and these tubes are another way of trying to find out if we have dormice on site. They will use them as refuges and can be checked a couple of times a season for occupancy. We put these out in different areas from the boxes so as to cover more ground and to try areas that would not be thought of as quite such obvious dormouse habitat, but which still has the right sort of structure.

Several of the tubes were put in areas of low dense willow, either in the coppice or dead hedges which result from the cutting. These lack hazel, so nuts for food, but do have bramble and will have lots of insects and especially aphids, which are important foods for dormice. The willows are now coming into flower and in the brief spell of sunshine I saw a few bumble-bees visiting the flowers. There was also a blue tit eating the nectar and I have previously noticed a lot of the lesser redpoll with pollen around their beaks at this time of year as well, the energy rich nectar is valuable to a wide range of species, not just insects.

During the day a mealy redpoll was reported from the Woodland hide again and there were also something like 100 brambling there as well. In the afternoon the lesser spotted woodpecker was also seen there, I have still to catch up with this bird, still it does seem to be hanging around so hopefully I will see it eventually.

From Ivy North hide the smew were seen for most of the day and a bittern intermittently. When I locked up the bittern was standing in the reedmace, as I watched it a Cetti's warbler hopped up in the same view and a water rail was calling loudly. Going to wards the Ivy South hide a raven flew over "cronking" loudly and doing a couple of rolls.

Lastly at the Tern hide as well as seeing the water pipit again I had a short time to look at the gull roost. The black-headed gull are really building up now with at least 5000 roosting, by contrast lesser black-backed gull numbers have fallen to just a couple of hundred and were outnumbered by the herring gull, many of which arrived from the south today.

Mysterious Wildlife

My first day in after a short break and we were doing a waterbird count of all the lakes this morning, all in all a bit grim in drizzle and then rain. The upshot was that lots of the wildfowl have left the lakes, which I had already guessed from the partial counts I had done earlier in the month, but you can never be certain that they have not moved to other lakes. Some will have gone into the Avon Valley onto floods, but many will have started back east and north now that the weather has got milder.

The mild conditions are good for moths though and last night saw a few more new for the year with a couple of small brindled beauty, both rather dark ones, the feathered antennae of the male is used to detect the female pheromones. This is another species with flightless females, like many of the winter flying species.
There was also a pale brindled beauty, 2 chestnut and a dotted chestnut. This last species is quite local and is one of a few species that have poorly understood life cycles. The larvae have rarely been found in the wild and there has been a long suggested association with ants, but this has not been confirmed with certainty. A number of species of insects have found ways to gain protection from ants, ranging from butterflies, especially blues, moths and hoverflies. It is interesting to know that there are species that, although uncommon, I see every year that are still not at all well known, proof that you do not need to travel to distant parts to find mysteries. This moth is at least well named as it does have lots of dots.
The wildfowl count did not result in any large numbers, but there were a few interesting birds. The 2 black-necked grebe were on Ibsley Water from the Goosander hide, the young drake smew was on Ivy Lake near the Ivy North hide, where I also saw a bittern, evidently one of two seen today. On the shore of Rockford Lake 2 green sandpiper were the first I had seen for a while, other waders were a single black-tailed godwit and the pair of oystercatcher.

Lastly, as I was leaving there was a splendid sunset, which actually got better after I took the shot below as I went to lock up the gate to the main car park.
A better day forecast for tomorrow, but as it is Thursday perhaps I should expect it. I plan to clear some of the debris on the shore of Ibsley Water to make it more suitable for the little ringed plover, which may well be with us by this time next week, as might the first sand martin.

A Beetle Abroad

The moth trap hardly caught anything last night, just a couple of micro moths, both of the same species Tortricodes alternella.
There was also a single large beetle, a female minotaur beetle, this is one of the dung beetles and it specialises in rabbit dung. At this time of year there are lots of small piles of sand with a neat round hole in the top, these are where the beetle has emerge after a subterranean early life.

I spent the morning on paperwork, only getting out in the afternoon to continue clearing laurel bushes.

The reserve was quite busy for much of the day and birds reported to me included a bittern again at the Ivy North hide, where the two smew were also seen, along with two redhead goosander. A belated report from yesterday was of a possible mealy redpoll at the Woodand hide, the verbal description I got sounded encouraging, so something to look out for.

Fool's Gold?

Today I lead a walk entitled "Going for Gold" an attempt to see fifty species of birds on a two hour walk at Blashford Lakes. It was one of the Hampshire & Isle of Wight Wildlife Trust's Fiftieth Anniversary Events, hence the fifty bird target. I had thought it would be not too hard to achieve, but the weather at the start was awful, rain and very poor visibility. The conditions had reduced the original starting line up of sixteen to only nine hardy souls by the time we got going at the Tern hide at 10 o'clock. So how did we do? A list, in approximately the order we saw them is below.

At the Tern hide we got:
1. tufted duck
2. coot
3. great crested grebe
4. goldeneye
5. pintail
6. cormorant
7. great black-backed gull
8. herring gull
9. little grebe
10. lapwing
11. black-tailed godwit
12. jackdaw
We then walked across to the Woodland hide, and on the way saw:
13. song thrush
14. bullfinch
15. mallard
As soon as we entered the Woodland hide we were surrounded by birds and added:
16. chaffinch
17. brambling
18. goldfinch
19. greenfinch
20. lesser redpoll
21. siskin
22. blue tit
23. great tit
24. long-tailed tit
25. nuthatch
26. blackbird
27. coal tit
28. dunnock
29. collared dove
30. great spotted woodpecker
31. robin
32. reed bunting
33. pheasant
We then headed down to the to the Ivy South hide, the rain had finally stopped and on the silt pond beside the path we added:
34. mute swan
35. gadwall
36. wigeon
From the Ivy South hide:
37. pochard
38. black-headed gull
39. shoveler
40. goosander
41. jay
42. teal
So still nine short of our target we set off to the Ivy North hide, with a hope of adding bittern. En route we added:
43. woodpigeon
44. carrion crow
45. wren (this was actually only heard singing very loudly right beside us, but we could not see it).
We entered the Ivy North hide still six short, but there were one or two more easy additions:
46. moorhen
47. smew (a bonus this, both of them swam past just beyond the reeds)
48. bittern (on a roll now)
49. grey heron
With one to go we left the hide and started to walk back to the main car park and just behind the hide on the lichen heath saw two,
50. redwing.
So we had done it, now it got easy, we had great views of,
51. treecreeper
on a tree just in front of us near the gate just after we had crossed the road and finally just on the edge of the car park our last bird.
52. buzzard, sat in a tree.

Despite pretty grim conditions, especially at the start, we had reached the target and only slightly over time.

In the afternoon I was in Wimbourne doing a talk about the reserve, in the very warm and dry and there was tea and biscuits as well.

At the end of the day I was back at Blashford. The 2 black-necked grebe had been seen again on Ibsley Water, one each from the Goosander and Lapwing hides. When I locked up I once again saw the bittern at the Ivy North hide, where I also heard a Cetti's warbler.

Early Morning Aigrettes

When I went to the Ivy North hide to open up I found the great white egret fishing in the channel just in front of the hide. Although the light was poor I decided to try and get a few pictures. It was just possible to angle the telescope to view through the side window, so I could see the bird, all I had to do then was set the camera so that the action of the bird was stilled and the contrast did not lead to the white plumage flaring. I took sixty odd shots and got three half decent ones, two of which are below. It is now in breeding plumage and has the long aigrettes, which are the long wispy plumes that grow down the back. Unlike little egret or grey heron they do not have head plumes.The aigrettes were much used in the Victorian and Edwardian fashion trade to adorn ladies hats. The head feathers of great crested grebe were also used as were many exotic species, especially humming-birds, the trade in which resulted in the import of hundreds of thousands of tiny corpses, sometimes used whole to "fly" around a hat. The excesses of this trade in feathers lead directly to the start of what in time became the RSPB. Before I left the hide I checked to the left in case the bittern was there and there it was, also fishing, although it slunk off into the vegetation, so even if the light had allowed there was no chance of a picture.

The 2 smew were reported from Rockford Lake again today, although the young drake flew over to Ivy Lake and was still there at the end of the day when I went over to lift a stranded mute swan over the fence on the Rockford path. The swans get stuck here because they land on Ivy Lake and get chased off by the very aggressive cob, if they do not have the wit to fly off they end up forced off the lake and so stuck on the path, unable to get through the fence onto Rockford Lake. There was also a report of 2 black-necked grebe on Ivy Lake this afternoon, but despite having a pretty good look I could not find them.

At the very end of the day I went to the Goosander hide to count the goosander roost, at least 155 came in, along with the female red-breasted merganser.

Too Good to Burn

A day which started misty with ice on the ground cleared to pleasantly warm sunshine. The "Volunteer Thursday" magic had worked again. Once again today we were clearing scrubby willow from the old silt pond where we plan to make a series of small ponds for the Million Ponds Project and refurbishing the sand martin bank. When we clear trees and with the dense growth of scrubby willows and extensive areas of unmanaged landscape plantings we have to clear quiet a bit, we never burn up the brash. This is not laziness it is because dead wood is a valuable resource.
The reserve has very little dead wood habitat, not surprising as most of the woodland is very young, one of the few areas with a lot is in the alder carr south of the Centre where many trees have succumbed to phytophora disease. Dead trees harbour lots of life, the larvae of beetles are often eaters of wood and in turn get eaten by birds such as woodpeckers. Dead wood in water is favoured by lots of fly larvae and there are specialists that eat certain types of tree or diameter of branch.

The tops of cut trees provide lots of small diameter twigs and branches, as well as being food, these can be used to create dead hedges, providing low dense cover, used by nesting birds and as cover to avoid predators. They are also popular with reptiles and amphibians.

A dead hedge does not last long, the small branches breakdown in a couple of years or so, but in this time they can provide support for brambles to grow through and so make a more permanent habitat, especially popular with nesting birds. A bramble hedge also makes a great barrier and is cheaper, more effective and longer lasting than a fence.

I saw rather little today, using a chainsaw and spending too long in the office does not make for good wildlife sightings. That said I did see a bittern as I opened the Ivy North hide. The reserve was very busy though and lots of other people did see all sorts of wildlife. The great white egret was on Ivy Lake for much of the day and bittern was seen on and off all day, both the egret and bittern were seen catching fish, in both cases they looked like rudd or roach. Over on Rockford Lake at least one smew was seen and best of all a lesser spotted woodpecker was found by the volunteers as they walked along the Dockens Water path to the worksite for the morning task.

Ibsley Gives a Bow

It was fine when I arrived at Blashford this morning, the sky was largely clear and the sun was rising. So I was surprised to see a "rainbow" over Ibsley Water as I opened the gate to the car park. I got a picture of part of it and just in time as it lasted only a minute or two. It seems the low sun as it rose was being refracted by the moist air enough to produce a rainbow effect even though there was no rain. With the sun so low the bow was arches high into the sky forming an almost full semi-circle.
The bird feeders were low and when I went to the shed I found that I needed to get more of almost everything, a trip to the feed suppliers was called for. Three sacks of assorted birdfood cost over £100! It was the recent rise in the price of peanuts that really put up the bill, luckily we do not use too many of these so hopefully I will not need more before the end of the winter.

After a damp morning, the moisture in the air first thing portended drizzle for a good while later on, eventually out came the sun so I took the chance to count the birds on Rockford Lake. As well as the usual ducks there was a single black-tailed godwit feeding on the bank nearest the path and it peered warily at me as I passed.Although there are still good numbers of wildfowl on the lake the population has dropped markedly since last week. The 2 smew were still there as were several hundred gadwall and at least 8 goldeneye. The great white egret was fishing along the western shore throughout my count and I got a couple of pictures. It was using the little egret style foot shaking method to flush fish out of the weed, something I don't think I have ever seen a grey heron doing.

I was counting for about an hour and by the end the sun was quite low this resulted in a stark contrast between the white bird and the dark water made more interesting by the reflections off the water.

At the end of the day I went to the Goosander hide to count the goosander roost. I watched until it got dark and when I totalled up the count it came to exactly 200, which just sounds like an estimate! Once again I was helped out by a fox walking the shore of the lake. The birds that had been out of sight round the corner all followed it and so allowed themselves to be counted. I also saw 7 white-fronted goose that flew in with a flock of greylag which also included the bar-headed goose. As it got dark the 2 smew flew in, although they made several circuits before eventually landing near the long shingle spit to the west of the hide. The female red-breasted merganser is also still roosting with the goosander.

Although there were a good few gulls I could see no sign of the first winter ring-billed gull reported recently and last seen on Saturday. I understand the mealy redpoll was seen again yesterday and 2 bittern were seen again today.

Redheads and White-fronts

All in all a quite excellent day, quite cold but with brilliant sunshine more or less throughout. There has been little further thaw and when I looked out of the Ivy north hide I was greeted by the sight of a single grey heron standing on the ice, probably cold, but enjoying the sun.
I have taken to walking back along the Ellingham path if I have time after opening the Ivy South hide, both Ellingham Lake and the Pound do not tend to ice up so have the potential to pick up birds seeking open water. There were a few more ducks than a couple of days ago, but most significantly there was a redhead smew on the Pound, it remained there all day. I got one reasonable picture, but I was concerned not to disturb it so I did not get too close. Redhead is a term for female or juvenile of sawbill ducks and goldeneye. It means a bird that is definitely not an adult drake, first winter birds and females look very similar and quite unlike the adult drakes.

Later in the morning I went out around the reserve, at Ivy Lake the bearded tit pair were showing well as was a Cetti's warbler. The main body of the lake was almost bird free thought, as it is almost all iced over. The ice free patch in the north-east corner had a few teal and a couple of shoveler resting on the ice. Over on Ibsley Water, the ducks were mostly pochard and wigeon with small numbers of other species including 8 pintail, which have been thin on the ground this winter. I did have a slightly odd sighting when counting the pochard, a small bird in the scraps of willow growing well out into the lake was a chiffchaff, very peculiar as it had to fly out over fifty or so metres of bare ground and water to get there. This was perhaps the one we saw at the Ivy North hide on Friday, although they occur in summer and spend the winter with us they always seem to be absent from about late October to early December. I scanned the large flock of greylag for the 5 white-fronted goose, without success, but then I saw them flying in from the west.

They landed and later took to grazing the grass on the eastern shore, gratifying as we spent a couple of days cutting the area for just such wildfowl in the autumn.

The young female peregrine tested the ducks but found none prepared to take flight and so expose themselves to attack. At the Centre feeders at least 3 brambling were feeding with the chaffinch and at the Woodland hide a single lesser redpoll was on the nyger seed with the siskin.

At dusk from the Goosander hide I saw at least 145 goosander coming to roost, the gulls included an adult Mediterranean gull and 6 or so yellow-legged gull. Just as it got too dark to see, six shadowy shapes flew over, heading toward Rockford Lake, a group of Egyptian geese.

Change for a Pound

A most surprising morning, when I opened up the Ivy North hide Cetti's Warbler was showing well and at the South hide there were 2 Green Sandpipers and all in very pleasant sunshine. I decided to walk back to the Centre the long way round via the Ellingham path and I'm pleased I did. When I got to Ellingham Pound there were the usual tiny number of birds, there is almost never anything of note on this pond, but they included a redhead Smew, possibly the one from Rockford Lake, or possibly not. I went to get a camera and got a few poor shots, although marginally better than my earlier efforts. However this was not the end of it, as I was taking the pictures a Great White Egret flew in, it was an unringed bird and did not stay long before a Grey Heron chased it off. Perhaps the Pound is turning over a new leaf, or perhaps this was it's purple patch and I just got lucky.
Over recent weeks there has been some bad feeling between photographers and general visitors in the Woodland hide. I decided to try an ease this by adding another feeder at the bend on the approach the hide, in a good sunny spot. Today I tried to get a few shots of Siskin and a couple are below, a male and a ringed female, possibly one of the birds ringed on the reserve recently.

The lichen covered branch is a decorative perch I added as being more interesting than either the feeder or the bare twigs of the neighbouring trees.

I spent most of the day moving willow brash to use on the banks around the main car park so did not see many birds for much of the day. However reports received, as they say, revealed that the, or a, Smew was on Rockford Lake and a Great White Egret was at Harbridge along with up to 18 Bewick's Swans. There was also a report of a male Marsh Harrier flying over, which I missed yet again, I seem destined never to see one at Blashford. Despite seeing no birds around the main car park I did make one observation of note, a Red Admiral, my first butterfly of the year.

At the end of the day I tried to get a Goosander count, however they had other ideas and I had to visit all three Ibsley Water hides, so would have missed some as they flew in. All the same the minimum number of birds present was 92, including 35 adult drakes. There were also at least 23 Goldeneye including 10 adult drakes.

I suspect the Red-crested Pochards have gone now as nobody reported them today, but there was a Bittern seen in the small patch of reeds north of the Goosander hide yesterday so the bird that has been around the eastern shore of Ibsley Water would seem still to be there.

Speeding toward the end of winter

The last week or so has been pretty hectic, with all manner of last minute happenings interrupting the best laid plans, although this is not that unusual it does seem to have been especially bad just lately. I desperately need things to settle down if I am going to get close to completing the winter work program, because one thing is certain, winter is on the way out. In only about five weeks Sand Martins will arrive, so the nesting bank needs to be completed. There are various areas of coppice and pollard to finish as well as the final bits of work on the new Ivy South hide, education shelter and webcams. And I still need to get the potholes in the track filled, as I am frequently reminded, I just need some dry weather to do it in.

Although we have had an increase in temperatures and the ice is all gone some of the birds remain. Three of the Red-crested Pochards are still on Ivy Lake, all females and including one pale leucistic bird.
The Smew first seen about two weeks ago, or at least I assume it is the same, turned up on Rockford Lake yesterday and finally allowed a few people, including me to catch up with it. The picture must vie for the title of my worst posted here so far, but it is a picture of the bird and the best I have got. It is a "redhead" which is to say either a female or immature bird, it is very hard to sex them in their first winter. Although the white areas do look very clean compared with some I have seen I cannot say for sure that this proves anything.

On the shore next to the Smew was the ringed Great White Egret and I understand the second birds was at Harbridge as well. Other birds seen yesterday included Cetti's Warbler at the Ivy North hide with another calling in the silt pond beside the path to the Ivy South hide and two Water Rails at Ivy North. Perhaps most surprising was Crossbill calling in the trees at the Centre as I arrived, although it, or more likely they, flew off without being seen.

The turn-out of volunteers for the Thursday morning session was impressive and we caught up on several tasks. The pollards and coppicing advanced considerably, a section of redundant fence was removed and the fire pit for use by the Education team was completed apart from the top sand layer.

The reserve is entered into the BTO/EDF Birds and Business challenge this year so I am keen to get all the records I can for the area each month. So far in January we have recorded 93 species, not bad but we are in the same category as the likes of Rutland Water so we could do with a few of last winters grey geese to drop in if we are going to keep in touch.

It don't make my Goldeneye Smew

I really should have had a better look at Ibsley Water first thing this morning, instead of the quick scan with binoculars that I actually did. Had I done so I would have seen a redhead Smew, I was sent a message about the bird, but by the time I looked it was long gone, flying off north. There were several Goldeneye, including this displaying group of 4 drakes and a single duck.
Whilst I was in the Tern hide a number of birds flew into the lake form the valley, the main birds involved were Wigeon and a flock of about 300 Black-tailed Godwit which landed on the spit to the east of the hide.
The day was marvellous with bright sunshine and feeling warm compared to recent days. The sun brought out the visitors, the car parks were effectively full for a short period in the late morning with almost 80 cars and probably twice that many people.

Despite the relative warmth many of the lakes still have extensive ice cover, although some like Ibsley Water and Ellingham Lake are almost ice free now. Ivy Lake has large numbers of wildfowl, many of which seem to delight in standing out on the ice rather than sitting on the water. These Mute Swans, Teal, Mallard, Gadwall and the duck Wigeon hiding behind the duck Mallard were on Ivy Lake.

Six species in one picture

A drake a two duck Gadwall taken from the SE screen on Ivy lake

A drake Tufted Duck, also from the same screen

Other wildfowl reported today included the 6 Red-crested Pochard still on Blashford Lake, although I did find a seventh today, a single duck on Ellingham Lake. At dusk there were over 100 Goosander in to roost on Ibsley Water, sadly with no sign of the Smew that had apparently roosted there last night. There was one last surprise though, a Curlew standing on the shore calling.

Meanwhile around the Woodland area there were a few Brambling and good numbers of Lesser Redpoll and lots of people looking at them. The feeders by the car park attracted two pairs of Collared Dove, not the rarest birds I know but I have never had much luck getting pictures of them, this one is not great but it is the best I have got.

There was also a deal of Egret action today, although none of it on the reserve. There were 2 Great White Egrets beside the River Avon at Harbridge, the usual ringed bird and a second unringed one. Things did get a bit confused though and at times there were claims that both of the birds at Harbridge were unringed and that a third bird was seen flying over Ibsley Water. For now I will go with the "Two bird theory". The usual 10 Bewick's Swans were there also and they had roosted on Ibsley Water overnight.