 |
| Drake Pochard |
 |
| Female Goldeneye |
'The Romans sacrificed a brown duck at the beginning of the Duck Days to appease the rage of Sirius, believing that the star was the cause of the cold, windy weather. In modern times, the term refers to those chill, shivery afternoons when ducks (and bird photographers) prefer to lay around and languish in front of, or inside a hide respectively'.
After input from my many readers (well THE one - and you know who you are๐๐) no more abbreviated sites names; so today was spent solely at Blashford Lakes HIWWT and mostly in Tern Hide where the northerly breeze ensured a chilly spell with windows open and ensured most of the gulls were keeping to the far north east portion of the lake and generally tail-on.
This Snipe was again in close to the hide roosting before slinking down to the more sheltered water's edge adjacent to the dumped 'brash' where it hunkered down with a second bird. A Water Pipit was heard, the Black-necked Grebe was almost as far away as possible and a single Marsh Harrier soared over southwards. Sadly, this Goldeneye failed to come in as close as the Pochards and Little Grebes and the males certainly kept their distance. A Green Sandpiper, otherwise invisible, was handily flushed into view by a Blackbird of all things!!
South side was very quiet, dark as the Black Hole of Calcutta in the Woodland Hide and with just this late, but still rather fresh, Comma in the carpark.
Finally, this military chopper flushed a few of the 150 Lapwing and a Dunlin and the garage produced another vegan delight following on from last month's Avo-lafel!!
Nice to chat to and swap stories with Bruce, Maurice and others in the slacker periods.
