Song Thrush again

The Song Thrush was in the garden again, at 8am; this time hunting at the back running to the right on characteristic short runs obviously hunting for food. The Thush then ran a little way towards the house on the western most flowerbed and spent some considerable time out of sight behind a bush, so much so that I had to leave at 8.40am to go to work. The Works Bargain Bookstore at Lowestoft now has 4 copies of "Collins Complete Guide to British Garden Wildlife" Photographic Guide at £4.99 each. Highly recommended! (there maybe copies at the Great Yarmouth store too).

Mass Clear Out!

With the temperatures rising and the thaw truly set in there was larger patches of water around today.
Taking an afternoon's annual leave, first stop Bradwell, no sign of the RS or even the Egyptian Geese, Lound Lakes appeared virtually deserted and still almost completely frozen except for a patch of water near the road for the one by the Ashby turn off, a few Tufted Ducks seen, 8 in all.
The other Lound Lakes were almost completely frozen the"Osprey one" had a fifth of the area as open water and the one east of the Causeway had a small area under the tree dominated by Mallards and 1 Tufted Duck. Oulton Broad was disappointing too, save for the Wood Duck seen on the path by the slipway and 3 Egyptian Geese.
The Anglian water Lake by Gunton Hall now had about a third of the lake with open water and much reduced tally of Gadwall 43 seen, once again the males dominated the females in numerical terms by a ratio of 2:1. 8 Tufted Duck and 5 Mute Swan plus a Little Grebe and 3 Goldcrests heard and 1 seen briefly in flight.
Gunton Hall lake was completely frozen, a Grey Heron stood on the ice, little else seen.

Garden Song Thrush

The Song Thrush was seen perched in the middle tree at the back of our garden early morning and at lunchtime 1.10pm was seen in the tree again. It flew down and fed on some bread by the front western edge of the middle flowerbed, it seemed intrigued when I slowly opened the upstairs window and looked at me curiously as I fired off a few shots (just 6 metres away) of what has sadly become a rare sight in the garden, lets hope this leads to more sightings.

The thaw sets in (eventually)

At Oulton Broad, there was a smallish pool by the yacht club which was full of duck including c50 Tufted Duck. I saw Rob Wil by pets corner and the best bird here was the handsome male Wood Duck feeding on food on the path ahead of us. It was of course completely iced over here too.
From the railway bridge, I could see little on Lake Lothing but by the shore side, 61 Dunlin huddled together with 1 Grey Plover, which promptly took to flight when some dog walkers walked by.
Visiting a very icy Leathes Ham, this morning, I visited the pool to the north of the area where an assotment of duck some 31 Pintail (mostly male with 7 females), Gadwall, Wigeon, Tufted Duck were seen in the water and asleep on the ice and including the weird hybrid bird (Tufted X Fudge Duck?) at the back. The redhead Smew was still active swimming at the back, left and right sides and swimming close into the north-west corner again showing well albeit in bad light. She even got up onto the ice on the eaqst side by the edge of the pool and had a quick 40 winks before going back into the water. Amongst the big gulls asleep at the back was the excellent adult Iceland Gull which spent most of its time preening and again mostly back on.
The Iceland Gull stayed quite a while until some stupid teenagers decided to venture out onto the ice. All the Gulls flew including the Iceland.
Big John B, Neville S and Dick W arrived later.
At the Anglian Water Lake opposite Gunton Hall entrance, I counted 131 Gadwall still a good number and 5 Pochard, 5 Wigeon and 30 Tufted Duck, plus 3 Mute Swan and 1 Little Grebe.
Whilst I was here I received a tweet from jeremy G saying he had a BN Grebe showing very well from Gorleston Pier.
By now it was getting noticably less chilly with the temperature gage in the car reading 6 degrees celsius.
When I first arrived, I could see Jeremy G and Ricky F looking out over the south side of Gorleston Pier.
The fantastic Black- necked Grebe was swimming close in just 10 meters away on the sea, creeping close I managed to get some great shots 60 metres from the end of the Pier. By this time we were joined by Paul & Jane and Rob Wil. As always a wonderful bird with prominent red eye and a black spot for the pupil, delicate black upturned bill and the body a ball of fluff. This bird then swam west directly towards Gorleston beach, where it swam about 10 metres off shore before heading north to the breakwater and then retracing its route east on the sea along the south end of the Pier again.
Other observers were excitedly watching the bird too. Looking north from the Pier 3 immature Brent Geese swam along the edge of the water here too.
The Black- necked Grebe was now heading to the open sea and a cargo boat and its pilot pushed the Grebe over the border and further out to sea off Yarmouth harbour. A reasonably close Great Crested Grebe in partial summer plumage swam south across the sea off the end of the Pier.
Between 5 and 5.20pm, I walked over to Fallowfields and immediately saw a Woodcock fly west and over the garden airspace, it appeared to settle in Parkhill Hotel grounds.
Another Woodcock flew west and again over the garden and again settled in Parkhill Hotel grounds. A further bird got up near the north- west wall and the fourth Woodcock was seen in a private garden get up and flying towards Parkhill Hotel grounds.
What a great day and nice to see the sun again!

Iced over

Saturday 11th February, I can honestly say that since Christmas, i haven't taken a single photo with my new lens in sunny weather. Today was the exception. First stop at a very icy Leathes ham with just 2 pools of fresh flowing water along the northern side from an other wise completely frozen area.
As I walked around, the excellent redhead Smew could be seen on the left- hand side of the Pool, before swimming out and being mainly at the back, but after a while she relented and spent a lot of time swimming around the north= west corner barely 5 metres away and we, OFB and I obtained some good shots in good light.
Around 20 Pintail, mostly males were at the back asleep on the ice, but a number of Gadwall and 1 male Wigeon swam close in.
The redhead Smew was diving frequently and often there was weed stuck in its bill.
A look at Oulton Broad and it was completely frozen over, so no Sawbills today there!
getting great advice from OFB, I drove down to the North denes caravan park along swimming pool road and went to reception to ask for permission to drive over the mobile caravan park site. The lady in reception was very nice and said yes, so I drove in and saw instantly 2 Lapwing and 2 Golden Plover, I drove up to the Golden Plover turning the engine off and eventually the Plover ran a little way towards me, I manoeuvred the car to get a good position in the best light and managed to obtain some good shots, especially near the fixed home blocking the concrete road running south. Also just north here near a patch of snow, the other Golden Plover ran towards me a showed well too.
Not to be outdone one of the Lapwings flew in close near the diagonal parking spaces at the end of Swimming Pool road and I was able to get good shots here too, especially of it successfully pulling out a leatherkjacket from the ground, which needed quite a tug before it swallowed its well earned meal!
i also made sure I went back to reception to thank the lady too.

Smew on Leathes Ham

I have been searching for a Smew all week, although I have been at work all week, I have checked local stretches of water, most have been completely frozen, but all without any Smew. Until today, when a tweet from Andrew E had me racing to Leathes Ham after work and at 5.15pm, I arrived but the light was fading rapidly and with dusk approaching, I scanned the area of open unfrozen water and initially I couldn't see it, instead seeing lots of duck especially Pintail where around 20 were seen. Then at the back, behind and island with a cut tree stump amongst the duck, I could see the excellent redhead Smew, with dark red crown and white cheeks. The silhouette was distinctive too in the rapidly fading light. A rare sight record and my first Smew seen here and first in Lowestoft for some time!

Record count of Gadwall

During the late afternoon, in the fading light, checking the Lound lakes; all were completely frozen except an area east of the causeway where 40 Mallard and 1 male Tufted Duck vied for swimming space.
At the "Anglian Water" Lake by the A12 opposite the entrance to Gunton Hall, a really impressive tally of 221 Gadwall were actively feeding and upending in the water (in the third of the lake which was not frozen), easily the highest count I've had at this location and indeed anywhere in Lowestoft! 5 Wigeon, 5 Pochard and 1 Little Grebe and 2 Mute Swans were also seen in the water too.