Redesmere Lake, Siddington

These pictures were all taken just after the new year, when we were still allowed out and prior to the latest lockdown. 

Redesmere lake, just a short drive from home, is where I have spent a lot of time over the last 18 months or so. Since taking on the monthly Wetland Bird Survey (WeBS) count here for the BTO I have found myself gravitating to it more and more. It is a large lake, about half a mile in length and is surrounded by woodland. This attracts some good birds all year round, with winter thrushes, Siskin and Redpoll, while in the summer I have had Spotted Flycatchers as the stars of the show.

The water itself also brings in some great wildfowl and geese. Last year I found 3 Greenland White fronted Geese and on the 1st of January this year I found 25 Whooper Swans on it. Add to this, Smew, Great White Egret and Red Crested Pochard, it has really turned out to be a surprising bit of water. I feel it is rather under-watched, so I am trying to visit more, as I am sure lots comes and goes unnoticed.

Here are a few of my sightings in early January.

Male Chaffinch in very poor light.

Female Chaffinch

Goldcrest with that rather sad looking downturned moustache.

These little guys do not stop still for a second, but fascinating to watch.

Greylag Geese on the march in the snow.

One of four Lesser Redpoll. These small birds don't hang about either.

Quite a few Redwings around, now down to the leaf litter having devoured all the berries.

I'd never really noticed how elegant they are from behind. A stunning winter thrush.

A Lovely Winters Day

Just after Christmas we had a nice amount of snowfall. By nice, I mean not enough to keep you indoors for days or the roads clogged up. It was just enough to enjoy a nice morning walk before it started to melt. So I was out early to see what birds it would bring out to play. I headed to Lapwing Lane pool, which has a really nice perimeter walk and a good variety of habitat, and then just down the road to Redesemere lake. First thing I noticed was how nicely the snow reflects light onto the underside of birds in flight. Buzzards and Geese looked very good in particular. 

Where the snow didn't reach, the frost took hold.

There was a lot of activity, as is always the case on a cold day. The birds seem to take more risks to find food. They will stay around longer as you walk by them rather than dash off at the first sign of a human form. This makes photographing them a little easier when utilised with fieldcraft.

Blue Tit

A Dunnock trying to find a patch where there is no snow.

Greylag geese were particularly busy on this morning, but looked fantastic with the snow reflecting.

The Kingfishers perch was well protected from the snow, and again, she was very active.

A Robin in snowy wintery conditions. One of those moments that looks like a classic Christmas Card.

White-fronted Goose

I'd just like to say a Merry Christmas to everyone that has visited my blog this year. I love reading your comments and I really enjoy being able to share what I see, however common the birds or animals are. I hope to post more regularly in 2020 as I try and count 200+ species within the year. I've never cracked it yet, but I've never found enough time. I plan to make more time. So stick with me, and hopefully it will be a successful birding year.

The main bird featured here today is likely to be my last tick of the year and it was a lifer too. Not far from my home is large body of water called Redesmere. I now volunteer for the BTO to count the wildfowl on here every month. I popped along to see what might be on the water. Among the 100+ Greylag Geese was one goose that had a very obvious white blaze on it's bill. I knew that this wasn't common amongst Greylags, but was on White-fronted Geese. The size difference was also quite noticeable, with it being 1/3 to 50% smaller than the Greylags.

I needed confirmation for this ID, as I had never seen one myself in the field before and so asked a good birding friend of mine, and it was quite quickly confirmed as a Eurasion White-fronted Goose.
I was delighted, and this was not what I expected to see on this visit, but I was so glad I popped over. Just shows you that anything can turn up anywhere. You just have to be there to see it.

You can see the smaller goose with it's white blaze in the centre of the pictures below.

This I believe is a juvenile White-fronted Goose that was also present on the same day.

Greylag Geese

The Greylag goose is a pretty common goose and I must say a little uninspiring when you walk past yet another one on your walks. However, at Martin Mere I thought I'd try and make them a little more appealing by taking some more interesting pictures. Flight shots are always good, so that's what I tried to. I had varying success, but it made me look at this goose in a different light (so to speak).

Hybrid Goose.

I popped to Redesmere, Cheshire, on my day off this week. Nothing really out of the ordinary there. Lots of the usual wildfowl and gulls. Geese numbers have been building steadily and today was no different. Greylags and Canada Geese were what was on offer today, and I even came across a hybrid of the two birds. When you scan hundreds of the same bird, it comes as quite a shock to see something slightly different.
Cross breeding between geese is not an uncommon thing but not the norm. Take a look at the two different types of geese below and then compare the hybrid.

These are the Canada Geese.

Greylag Geese.

Canada again.

And here is the hybrid. It seems to have the white cheek mark of the Canada Goose and lighter plumage than the Greylag, but is clearly a bit of both.

Here are some more Greylags just having fun.

There's always a real commotion when these guys come in to land