A Shakin' Fox, an Obvious Admiral and the Mandarins

Ibsley Water was pretty sparse first thing, a couple of little egret, a reasonable count of 131 shoveler and a common sandpiper was all I could find. A few swallow and a single sand martin flying over southward were the only hirundines.

The conditions are still good for fungi and I got pictures of a couple of unidentified groups in the area of the Woodland hide. One lot rather egg-like.
The other group more conventional, in fact these might be honey fungus, although they seemed rather small.

Returning to the Centre something caught my eye on a spurge plant, a closer look showed it to be a caterpillar preparing to pupate. I looked later in the day to see it it had progressed, but it had gone, I suspect taken by a predator, since if I saw it easily, presumably other sets of eyes would also. It was a red admiral caterpillar, so it would probably not have survived anyway as they only overwinter as adults in this country as far as I know.

The moth trap was pretty unremarkable, although a fresh large wainscot was only the second I have seen this autumn.

During the afternoon I looked out of the office window and there was a fox walking about in the car park. I called Jim and we watched it as it wandered about. It quickly became obvious that it was the "head-shaking" cub from the earth by the store. Watching it moving about, head rolling about it was hard to believe it had survived. When I walked out of the door it stopped and looked at us, head temporarily still, so it can hold still if it really needs to. Walking to the Ivy South hide to lock up we saw a fox was sitting in the sun on the far side of the silt pond, it was then joined by a second and it was immediately obvious the first was an adult and the second the head-shaking cub. If this cub is still with mum it might explain how it has survived.

From the Ivy North hide we saw 4 mandarin duck, two drakes and two ducks, so it looks like yesterday's group of three have found a friend. I had bit more time than usual at the end of the day and I was going to count the gull roost, however I did not get far before being interrupted by the sight of someone wandering along the northern shore of Iblsey Water and flushing the wildfowl. So I settled for a single adult yellow-legged gull and went to have a word.

A Bittern at last!

Today saw the start of a slight thaw and also the arrival of a few new birds including 6 Red-crested Pochard on Blashford Lake. These are not likely to be wild birds but part of one of the feral populations forced off their favourite lakes by the freeze. The picture and yes I know it is a really lousy one, is of one of the two drakes. They were diving for waterweed which they were dragging up in great beakfuls.
Although there is a thaw going on there are still only good ice free areas on Blashford Lake, Ivy Lake, Rockford Lake, Ellingham Lake and Ibsley Water. All the wildfowl are concentrated onto these waters, apart from Ellingham Lake, which holds almost no birds. Between them the remaining lakes held 874 Gadwall and 1401 Coot, the Gadwall count is the largest I have made this winter and is above the threshold for international importance.

The first Bittern of the winter has also turned up at the Ivy North hide, unfortunately the water is frozen so if it is going to remain it will have to find somewhere to feed quickly. Interestingly it is in the patch of reeds just east of the hide and is a very warm brown bird, just like the one that was in that area at the same time last year.

In the woodland area 2 Brambling, both males were with the Chaffinch flock and several Lesser Redpolls were on the niger feeders. During the day I saw 3 Woodcock in different places, one of the most obvious species to have been displaced by the snowfall.

The adult Caspian Gull was standing on the ice of Ibsley Water from around the middle of the day until dusk, by which time the lake held the usual roost including 80+ Common Gull and at least 5 Yellow-legged Gull. There was also a leucistic female Red-crested Pochard, I suspect the one from Blashford Lake which I had seen earlier. There was also a pair of Bewick's Swan on the lake briefly at lunchtime before they flew off north. For the first time in some weeks large numbers of geese arrived on Ibsley Water with 221 Canada Geese and 60 Greylags.

Three times during the day I saw Foxes walking out on the ice, at times well out and with great confidence. The first, as I opened up was almost in the middle of Ibsley Water, it was not hunting, apparently just taking a short cut.