Male goldeneye A pair of goldeneye showed from Causeway Hide, the handsome male in lively diving sequence and rarely surfacing for long.
A bittern boomed intermittently, a bass resonating call.
The bright sun lit the seeding bulrush which rose proud of the reed beds in a way that seemed unfamiliar. We couldn't understand it. Later that morning, we met a Reserve warden who told us of starling murmurations of 70,000 birds that descended into the reed beds to roost, and flattened them.
A bittern boomed intermittently, a bass resonating call.
The bright sun lit the seeding bulrush which rose proud of the reed beds in a way that seemed unfamiliar. We couldn't understand it. Later that morning, we met a Reserve warden who told us of starling murmurations of 70,000 birds that descended into the reed beds to roost, and flattened them.
Sunlight brought out the green sheen on the mantle of lapwing amongst the reed stubble fringing the water. Two men from LIverpool had found garganey and one of them invited me to take his place so I could see them, hunkered down amongst lapwing and facing away from us. Even so, the beautiful detail of their breeding plumage was visible. And a smart male teal swam across the water toward them.
Coltsfoot flowered beside our path. A brimstone butterfly showed, my first of the season. Signs of spring all around us after a week of warm March weather but the woods retain their winter colouring, buds tight.
On 24 May 2019 I saw great crested grebe in courtship dance and a reprise would be exciting. I see a little grebe but the great crested grebe does not show. Water birds are resplendent in breeding plumage, at its best on this bright morning.
The goldeneye pair are together, at a distance, rarely on the surface for long. The garganey are at rest together amongst the reeds, scarcely stirring. Lapwing always on the qui vive, alert.
Zoom in on the image and I lose the liveliness of the goldeneye experience, the elusiveness of the bird. You can see the golden eye and the large white rounded loral spot. Sunlight picks up the green gloss on the black head but there's a delicate pattern of narrow black scapular lines fringing the white flanks and the bird is too far off for that to show.
Coltsfoot flowered beside our path. A brimstone butterfly showed, my first of the season. Signs of spring all around us after a week of warm March weather but the woods retain their winter colouring, buds tight.
On 24 May 2019 I saw great crested grebe in courtship dance and a reprise would be exciting. I see a little grebe but the great crested grebe does not show. Water birds are resplendent in breeding plumage, at its best on this bright morning.
The goldeneye pair are together, at a distance, rarely on the surface for long. The garganey are at rest together amongst the reeds, scarcely stirring. Lapwing always on the qui vive, alert.
Zoom in on the image and I lose the liveliness of the goldeneye experience, the elusiveness of the bird. You can see the golden eye and the large white rounded loral spot. Sunlight picks up the green gloss on the black head but there's a delicate pattern of narrow black scapular lines fringing the white flanks and the bird is too far off for that to show.
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