A few Birds and a Stink Horn

I could not see Iblsey Water when I opened up the Tern hide so there was nothing to report. A little later, when the fog had lifted I could just make out a juvenile common tern, a dunlin and a ringed plover around the islands. The shore near the hide had a fair few pied wagtail, perhaps 20 with similar numbers of meadow pipit and at least one grey wagtail.

It turned out the great white egret was seen from the Goosander hide for a good part of the morning. I also heard that there have been a couple of sightings of lesser spotted woodpecker from there recently, on one occasion a pair of birds. Other recent reports have included 9 goosander and 2 little ringed plover, the last very late for Blashford.

The volunteers were working clearing the willows that have invaded the shore of Ivy Lake, they also collected plants for planting up the vegetated rafts. We have chosen to use mostly reed sweet grass, as this seems to be the species with the greatest phosphate demand and it is hoped the rafts will help in the reduction of levels of this nutrient in the lake.

At this point there was to have been a picture of an especially fine and smelly stink horn fungus complete with a host of flies. We found it as we walked back form the volunteer task, I was going to go back and get a picture but never made it.

At the end of the day a quick look at Ibsley Water, this time in sunshine and I saw a little stint, no doubt yesterday's bird and 3 dunlin. There were still fair numbers of all three common hirundines today and several chiffchaff are still around in the willows.

A Stint on Ibsley Water

Mist, followed by drizzle soon turning to rain, which lasted all day. It is rare for whole day to be wet, but today managed it.

Looking through the mist from the Tern hide at the start of the day I saw 7 dunlin and a ringed plover, almost what was there yesterday but not quite, were these mostly the same birds or an entirely different group? There were also 13 Egyptian geese, a juvenile common tern, the great white egret, 2 little egret, a sparrowhawk, 30 wigeon and 4 pintail. These were the first pintail I have seen on the lake this season.

At Ivy North a calling water rail was the only thing of note. On the silt pond by the path to the Ivy South hide there was a good selection of wildfowl including wigeon, gadwall, teal and mallard. From the Ivy South hide 63 tufted duck were more than recently and there were also 2 drake pochard.

Later in the day a little stint had joined the dunlin on Ibsley Water, the first of the year and a useful extra bird for our BTO Challenge total.

The greatest sighting of the day was made in the lobby of the Centre, I was walking between the offices when I glanced at the big screen, which was relaying pictures form the pond, when I saw a grass snake, evidently using the camera as a route out of the pond so the whole length of the body passed up the screen, like some huge monster, an amazing sight.

Perhaps surprisingly as I locked up the Ivy North hide, in the continuing rain, there was a migrant hawker dragonfly hunting flies outside the hide.

A Sexton Flies In

A mild drizzly night produced a good catch of moths, but not only moths, there were two small dung beetles and one black and orange burying beetle. It was carrying a number of small mites, one or two of which can be seen below the thorax. The red spot is a club end on the tip of the antennae. These beetles are also known as sexton beetles after their habit of burying small carcases on which they and their larvae feed. They will probably also feed on the larvae of other carrion feeders and in some the female beetle stays with her off-spring even feeding them when they are very small.
The great white egret was around for much of the day on Ibsley Water as were yesterday's group of 5 dunlin and 2 ringed plover. There were still good numbers of hirundines about over the lakes, especially early on when the drizzle was still falling. House martins were most numerous, but there were over 50 sand martin over Ivy Lake, a good number for so late in the season.

A flock of small birds near the Ivy North hide in the morning was made up mainly of chiffchaff, with at least twenty, but also included 2 blackcap and a small number of blue tit, great tit and long-tailed tit. However the real surprise was when I realised there was a kingfisher sitting in one of the bushes, these were not bushes on the lake shore, but on the raised bank to the north.

At the end of the day 2 juvenile common tern had turned up on Ibsley Water and the great white egret was still present.

Shades of Black

A much cloudier night meant that the temperature did not drop so far and so there were rather more moths, last night's catch, in no particular order, was: sallow 8, large yellow underwing 8, light emerald 2, pink-barred sallow 8, Acleris emargana 1, black rustic 1, lunar underwing 6, frosted orange 1, setaceous hebrew character 2 and snout 4. The black rustic was the first of the autumn, when they are fresh, which they rarely seem to be, they are very dark, with a distinctly gothic look. The thorax especially is very black and the wings have a velvety look with patches matt and others with a slightly coloured sheen.
Both Ibsley Water and Ivy Lake had good flocks of hirundines feeding over them, however the roughly 400 birds over Ibsley Water were mostly swallow c250, sand martin c100 and house martin c50, whilst those over Ivy Lake were overwhelmingly house martin c300, with just about 30 swallow and 10 sand martin. There were also more wigeon about today, I don't know how many, probably only tens, but certainly noticeably more than yesterday.

The pink-footed goose was on Ibsley Water again as were 15 Egyptian geese, at least for a time. The great white egret was also present for a good part of the day. Yesterday's dunlin was still on the shore by the Tern hide, but a party of 3 dunlin and 2 ringed plover at lunchtime were new, the dunlin group had increased to five by the end of the day and I suspect these did not include the juvenile from the Tern hide shore.

Pink-footed Goose and a Feeding Frenzy

A bit of a photofest today, not that I set out with that in mind. The day started with a flock of 60 or so shoveler flying across onto Ibsley Water from Mockbeggar Lake, a sure sign of there being people on the bank. I went round for a quick look and there was a car parked up, no sign of anyone and no tracks in the dew so probably anglers, so they would keep whilst I opened up the hides. From the Ivy North the roe deer were just top the west of the hide and a quick look in the hide book showed a report of long-eared owl seen yesterday, no details, just written in with "coot" and "egret", if there really was one it would be a reserve "first".

Then it was time to go over to Mockbeggar and track down the anglers, there were five of them and they had evidently spent the night fishing. There were no birds on the lake but as I walked back I flushed a woodlark from a small patch of grass, the first I have seen on the reserve this year.

A look round other parts of the reserve proved most productive. From the screen along the Rockford path I had a good view of the three young great crested grebe, now quite well grown. I saw one adult feeding a small pike to one of the young.
Back to the Centre via the Tern hide and the greylag geese out on the lake included a smaller bird, a pink-footed goose. Now this might be an escaped bird, but over the last two days there have been several reported at various unusual places, my guess is they have been displaced in the prevailing northerly winds just as lots have been arriving from the north. So my bet would be that it is a real wild bird. The best picture I got was not great but with wings raised you can tell, if you are in the know, that it really is a pink-footed goose.

There was also a remarkable number of fish eating birds around the lake today. A peregrine landed on the favourite cormorant island displacing the birds, allowing me to count them, there were an amazing 260! Added to this disturbance on neighbouring lakes had resulted in most if not all of the grey herons in the area having collected on Ibsley Water, I could not count them quite so well, but there were at least 120. Lots of fish eaters on a lake with lots of fish, well you can guess what might happen next.

The cormorants started to fly into the small bay just east of the Tern hide, they were driving a shoal of fish into the narrow inlet. The herons noticed and began to gather on the shore, a feeding frenzy had begun. In the next ten minutes or so about 100 cormorant, at least 24 grey heron, a little egret and the great white egret were involved. When it finished the cormorants all came out onto the shore to dry off. The three pictures below show things just after the start, during the feeding and the last as things ended.

Several of the cormorants have got fish in the above shot.

Above we have both egrets, a grey heron, cormorants and attendant gulls. As the cormorants drive the fish into the bay they come within range of the herons, avoiding the herons meant going back into deeper water and the cormorants.

Nothing better than a spot of sun to round off a good meal, the heron had just landed, it was not drying out.

At lunchtime I emptied the moth trap, it was a very thin catch, the only species were: sallow, pink-barred sallow, lunar underwing, brindled green and frosted orange. One of the frosted orange was especially fine and I got a fair picture of it.

Although there was a cold wind it was quite warm in the sunshine and there was a red admiral and several common darter about. The darters were perching on the picnic tables and I got a close up shot of one of them.

I had noticed that despite our several volunteer days pulling Himalayan balsam there were still a scatter of plants along the Dockens Water, so I took a walk along the stream and pulled what I could find. Most were either very small plants or ones that were bitten off by deer and "pollarded" easily missed when pulling plants in July, but now reaching flowering. If we get an early frost they might never set seed, but an Indian summer and they will so I was not taking any chances. It is an attractive plant but a real menace, spreading and taking over from native species. It is the fact that it is attractive that is the secret of much of the spread, people like it and so plant it in their gardens, it then escapes and colonises new ground.

At the end of the day there was a dunlin right in front of the Tern hide, a juvenile and a long-billed one at that. The few new grey winter plumage feathers can be seen dotted about amongst the pale fringed juveline ones. A second dunlin was also out on one of the islands well up the lake.

Other birds today included at least one white wagtail, a hobby, 4 pochard, an adult yellow-legged gull and 3 Egyptian goose. A further Egyptian goose and 2 pochard were on Rockford Lake.

Skuas and Sallows

The day got off to a monsoon start with torrential rain, in fact we had 14mm of rain fall in only about half an hour and even in this time there were short spells when it stopped. So when it rained it really rained and rain like this can bring down birds flying overhead that would normally never be seen. I went into the Tern hide with thoughts of possible black terns or waders, but there were none to be seen.

The heavy rain kept my in the hide for a little longer than usual, the black-headed gulls were all standing still heads angled up to minimise the area being impacted by the heavy rain drops. Looking about I noticed three birds high above Ibsley church dropping down towards the lake, at first I thought they were waders, perhaps whimbrel, but they were not right, wings too long and well just not waders. As they dropped down I got the telescope onto them, they were skuas! But still they were very slight, not displaying a powerful hawk-like look at all, long loose wings and almost tern-like flight, they were long-tailed skuas. All were more or less plain brown, slightly paler below obviously they were juveniles. They came low across the lake to the south end, they rose up and went off south-west gaining height as the rain eased. Heavy rain really can bring in the unexpected. These might be the first inland long-tailed skuas recorded in Hampshire, although they are known to migrate overland quite regularly they rarely get seen, probably because they are too high.

Nine brave volunteers came in today and by the time we started work the rain had stopped completely and we did a good bit of work. Two stayed on into the afternoon and in between we had lunch and emptied the moth trap. This was the first night the trap had been run since I finally managed to repair it. The haul included a three pink-barred sallow, these are really bright moths presumably it is only the autumn leaf colour that could possibly give them any chance of hiding from predators.
Other birds today included the great white egret for a time this morning on Ibsley Water where there was also a dunlin and a common sandpiper, probably both the same as yesterday's birds. Around the middle of the day a scatter of sand martin and swallow were over Ibsley Water and a few house martin passed over the Centre. A hobby hunting over the trees by the Ivy North hide as I locked up was a good sight. Lastly locking up the Tern hide, a quick look out and there were 2 common tern, both juveniles, but nothing else new that I could see.

A Dewy Start and Late Arrivals

A cool, dewy autumn morning, the damp allows the slugs to get out and about in numbers, most are the large brown form of Arion ater a slug of very variable appearance and one of the commonest species. In very open habitats and in uplands they are usually black, in more sheltered habitats brown or reddish, in very sheltered yellow or even pale cream. The one in the picture is typical of the Blashford specimens and was by the path near the Ivy North hide as I opened up.
The dew also picks out the cobwebs and the many different types of web can easily be seen. The gorse bushes were covered with flat fine webs and between more open twigs there were lots of orb webs of the classic type with a radial design.

My first look round the hides turned up nothing of note, a calling water rail by the Ivy north being perhaps the most notable. The lack of hirundines was noticeable, the first morning I have seen none as I opened up since the early spring. The few people about reported very little for most of the day, a colour-ringed peregrine beside Ibsley Water and a couple of common sandpiper being the best. Then a visitor at the Centre pointed out there were 2 spotted flycatcher in the large oak next to the car park, always nice birds to see.

Whilst having lunch I at first thought there was a ruddy darter beside the pond, but the picture shows it to just be a very bright common darter, although it was a rather small one.

When I closed up the Tern hide I was not expecting much, the great white egret had been reported from Mockbeggar Lake, but nothing of note had really been seen on Ibsley Water. However when I looked out I saw a tern, an adult common tern, the first for a while, then I noticed more until there were twenty. They were a mix of adults and juveniles and were flying about, often quite high and calling a lot. I would guess they were a group of migrants, possibly pushed south by the approaching weather. I then saw a dunlin and as I followed that a redshank. Although not rare birds these would all seem to be migrants on the move that had arrived during the afternoon. With rain promised overnight there could be more in the morning.