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.

TV and Another "Tick"

All sorts of goings on today, despite a pretty cold night there were a few moths in the trap this morning including beaded chestnut, "November" moths, feathered thorn, red-green carpet, grey-shoulder knot, large yellow underwing, turnip, red-line quaker, yellow-line quaker, shuttled-shaped dart, large wainscot and mottled umber, the last a very well marked one and pictured below.
Today saw the team from BBC Autumn Watch on site to film a piece about common garden birds filmed on the feeders around the car park at the Centre and at the Woodland hide. I understand things went well so you can see Blashford on TV on Thursday next at 20:00 on BBC 2. The team can be seen below during a break in filming.

I also snapped a couple of shots of birds at the feeders myself, including this great tit, an adult and one of the birds that was ringed last winter.

I also got a coal tit at the same feeder and by coincidence this bird was also one of our ringed birds.

For some a visit from the BBC would be quite enough excitement for one day, but not for me, the highlight was actually nothing to do with the TV. It came in the form of yet another bird "tick" for Blashford, at least for me, I have not looked up the records yet. This came in the shape of a group of 3 red-breasted merganser, all red-heads, actually I think young birds. Below is a poor shot of the party, but at least you can just about tell what they are.

Other birds today included a green sandpiper on Rockford Lake with perhaps 700 coot and a good number of wigeon. From the Ivy North hide a singing Cetti's warbler and a couple of blue tit behaving like poor man's penduline tit, in that they were pulling apart the seedheads of reedmace, perhaps the real thing will turn up, perhaps, maybe, one day.

Towards dusk on Ibsley Water the young female peregrine was testing out the gulls for weakness, although did not find any easy enough to catch. The gull roost was as large as ever and I saw at least 2 yellow-legged gull along with the thousands of lesser black-backed gull like the ones in the picture taken from the Goosander hide.