Picture this: It's a frosty cold but sunny day. The lakes and ponds are iced over. The trees are bare of leaves. Bitterns and Water Rails are searching so hard for food that they are performing 'Dancing on Ice' out in the open in their attempts to find a patch of water that isn't frozen over.
Nice picture eh ? All week this was what I was picturing in my mind for todays visit to the London Wetland Centre. Did it happen ? Did it duck !
It was cold today. I was wrapped in several layers, along with my new owl hat, snood, lined boots and long gloves. But by the time the centre opened all of the main lake and most of the ponds were un-iced over. Despite visiting every single hide by 11.00 not one Bittern nor Water Rail had been spotted. In fact the high-light of my morning was spotting the lesser-seen Gary of GG Wildlife fame. I haven't seen Gary for months and we had a nice catch up including putting the world to rights (we're very good at doing that). Before I go on with the rest of my day here's the link to GG Wildlife Flickr page. If I don't post that, GG might not talk to me the next time I see him !
If you like Herons, then today was certainly a day for seeing them. Several were posing nicely.....
The clear blue skies made for some nice flying Mute Swans shots....
But the good light also made for some lovely duck photography.
First up were the funny looking Shovelers, with that huge bill that makes you wonder if they get a sore neck carrying it around......
I wasn't happy with this first photo, the position of the light didn't justify the birds colourful plumage, so I hunted around until I found another male in better light......
His portrait was so much better I decided to use my newly found Flickr edit tool (Aviary edit - Splash) to highlight his feathers rather than distract his image from the green duckweed little stream he was on.
My next subject was the lovely Teal. As with most ducks, it's the males that are brightly coloured and the females that are drab. The male Teal has exceptional colouring and detail in it's feathers. My photos do not do it justice, but I tried....
and then I found another male that deserved the Flickr Aviary edit tool - Splash......
From the Peacock Tower I spotted three Pintails, one male and two females.....
A little while later the male chose to swim closer for a better photo...
In todays good light even the common Tufted Ducks looked splendid....
and I caught a Wigeon looking at me in a curious way (must of been the 'owl' hat....).....
After having myself a good old ducking time but still not being able to find a showy Burt Bittern, or in fact any Bittern at all, I had already planned the title of todays blog. I was going to call it 'Bittern Blindness at Barnes'. Almost every hide I had been in to I had been told I'd 'just missed one', or 'one had just flown off' or 'look there's one' and frequently 'look there's two' but despite having the same equipment (ie: binoculars) I just could not see the Bitterns. They certainly weren't 'dancing on ice' as I'd dreamed they would be all week ! I've heard of 'beer goggles' where you see something that isn't attractive as very attractive when you've had a few beers. Well today it was 'bittern goggles' and I must have been the only one that had left them at home. Even with kind and patient observers pointing out landmarks and directing me north, south, east etc from those points, I still could not see what they were seeing and I soon wandered off feeling a complete Burt failure.....
I consoled myself with a small flock of Long-tailed Tits that perched nearby....
and spent a beautiful 15 minutes in the company of a female Reed Bunting, who was hopping around on a patch of flattened reeds eating grassy seed heads. She was so relaxed that I was able to sit just a couple of metres away from her. It made me get a cold bum, but well worth it, and after all I do carry extra insulated padding in that area.....
I treated myself to the usual pricey lunch after that, and even contemplated going home. It just didn't seem to be my day for seeing a Burt Bittern, but I pushed myself to do one more lap and eventually found myself in the Dulverton Hide where a group of hardcore birders had seen a Bittern. I found myself a bench space, and half heartedly scanned the area they were watching. After half an hour the sun suddenly high-lighted the outline of a distinct Burt shaped Burt as it crept nearer the waters edge. You didn't even need bins to see it. The golden outline was viewable to the naked eye. But it wasn't as easy to photograph. This Bittern wasn't by the side of the hide, it was right over the other side of the main lake !
Poorly taken crap-focus photos followed, but even though my spirits were dashed by a distant Bittern rather than an all singing and dancing one, they were lifted when I was able to show the elderly gentleman by my side where the Bittern was using much more easier descriptive terms than 'north, south, east'. My words of 'look to the right of the last cormorant on the right hand side' and his exclamations when his bins first focused on the Burt was enough, and his gratitude more than made up for it.
So here's our Burt. Just look at the red arrows......
I didn't exactly get what I wanted to get today, but who cares. That's what happens when you expect too much. I had a good day out. Seeing GG was a bonus, as was bumping into RPM (Richmond Park Michael). The light was great for getting some other photos and I had the bonus of spotting this flowering Hellebore on my way out...
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