I came to Grove Ferry on a very different day to my last visit. There was a very blustery westerly wind with frequent light rain showers.
I started the visit well with brief views of a female Hen Harrier being mobbed by a Carrion Crow before it then flew away from the reserve. I hoped that I might see it again but that was my only view for the day. There were a few Blackbirds dotted around and the usual little jobs. Chaffinch were singing away and I could hear a Cetti's warbler singing. 12 Lapwing flew up before wheeling back towards the area from the viewing ramp.
From the viewing ramp there was a good mix of duck with Teal, Shelduck, Shoveler, Gadwall and Mallard all present, and at least 60 Lapwing. A male and a female Marsh Harrier flew over at the back.
As I was getting decidedly wet I headed along to the David Feast hide. Passing the first small body of water I could see 3 Coot and a smart summer plumaged Little Grebe. As I approached the hide I had another 2 Cetti's Warbler singing. I managed to get brief views of one of them but it was too quick for me to get any photos.
There were some very smart Tufted Duck which were coming quite close and allowing good views. The male's head shape and tuft showed well from some angles.
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| Male Tufted Duck |
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| Male Tufted Duck showing tuft |
The female had some white on her face at the base of her bill.
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| Female Tufted Duck |
The male and female appeared to be a pair and were usually close to each other.
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| Tufted Duck pair |
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| Tufted Duck pair |
There was also another male who every now and then would move in closer. He seemed to be reasonably well tolerated but the speed they were swimming at would always pick up and the first male invariably showed an alert posture.
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| Tufted Duck trio |
Two Greylag Geese moved out from the cover of the reeds and had a brief wash and brush up before the male moved in and they mated. The male looked immensely pleased with himself when they had finished and swam with head and bill pointing upwards and wings held partly apart for a minute or so afterwards.
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| Greylag Geese mating |
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| Greylag Geese mating |
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| One very pleased with himself Greylag Goose |
The both then went back to having a wash and brush up.
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| Greylag Goose - wash and brush up |
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| Greylag Goose - wash and brush up |
Heading over to the island they started preening and in between beat their wings vigorously.
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| Greylag Goose wing flapping |
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| Greylag Goose wing flapping |
After this they both started calling and then one after another they flew heading in the direction of Stodmarsh.
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| Greylag Goose in flight |
A Coot was diving and surfacing holding a stem which it then proceeded to swallow whole. It ate several in quick succession before going back to eating pond weed. I don't know if they were softer than they looked to swallow.
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| Coot eating stem |
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| Coot swallowing stem whole |
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| Coot - almost gone |
I walked on to the Marsh Hide in increasingly heavy rain. I came across at least 3 more singing Cetti's Warblers. A Kestrel was hunting. It was very quiet from the Marsh Hide. There were a couple of Stock Dove but that was about it.
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| Stock Doves |
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| Stock Dove in flight |
I carried on towards Stodmarsh hearing several more Cetti's Warblers on the way. I got completely sidetracked at this point as my camera suddenly said to insert a memory card, despite there being one already in there, and then froze and would not close or turn off. Re-inserting the card did not help so once I got back to the car, and could sit down, I tried a new battery but that did not help either so I then tried a new memory card and everything seemed to work okay again. I headed along to the Reedbed Hide to try the camera out and see how things went.
There were several pairs of Shoveler all feeding in the same manner. Each pair was swimming round in tight circles with their heads under water. They are handsome ducks with spectacular bills.
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| Male Shoveler |
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| Female Shoveler |
Every now and then a fight would break out between rival males whereupon one would fly at the other and they would collide in a flurry of beating wings.
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| Male Shoveler fighting |
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| Male Shoveler fighting |
I tried for some shots of the Shoveler as they flew, with varying levels of success but I enjoyed trying.
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| Male Shoveler in flight |
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| Female Shoveler in flight |
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| Male Shoveler in flight |
A female Pochard swam into the bay briefly but was too far away for a decent photo. A Cormorant flew in and after a quick fishing session stood out to dry its wings. In between having them outstretched it also beat them rapidly.
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| Cormorant drying its wings |
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| Cormorant wing flapping |
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| Cormorant wing flapping |
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| Cormorant wing flapping |
I could not see any sign of the Snipe today. Teal were tucked into the same area.
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| Teal |
While I was watching the Teal a pair of Long-tailed Tits flew into the bush. They were mainly obscured by branches but I did manage to get a shot of one of them peeping through.
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| Long-tailed Tit |
A least 3 Marsh Harrier's came past at various times. I found it hard to get any decent photos today but I enjoyed watching them.
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| Marsh Harrier |
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| Marsh Harrier |
I had enjoyed my visit. It may not have been the best of weather but in the hides it does not really matter. Luckily the camera seems to have got over whatever happened and appears to be working okay. When I got home I tried the failed memory card in the computer but it struggled to read it. Luckily, though it took several hours as the transfer rate was so slow, it did manage to finally locate and load in the photos I had taken before the card failed. I felt very lucky for that as I would have been sorry to have lost them. I have not had a memory card fail before and I do not really understand how it can have had such an effect on the camera as to cause it to freeze open and be unable to turn it off etc. I do not know if the memory card failed and affected the camera, or the camera failed and affected the memory card. I guess time will tell. I am just hoping now that it does not happen again, once is definitely enough.
Birds seen this visit include: 1 Hen Harrier, Blackbird, Chaffinch, Robin, Dunnock, Carrion Crow, 9 Cetti's Warbler, 125 Lapwing, 6 Marsh Harrier, 130 Teal, 6 Shelduck, 15 Shoveler, 9 Coot, 1 Little Grebe, 2 Mute Swan, 10 Gadwall, 3 Greylag Geese, 15 Mallard, 1 Kestrel, 4 Reed Bunting, 6 Meadow Pipit, 1 Jay, Great Tits, Blue Tits, 2 Water Rail, 4 Long-tailed Tit, 3 Chiffchaff, 1 Fieldfare, 5 Wren, Goldfinches, Chaffinches, Great Spotted Woodpecker, Moorhen, 1 Pochard,
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