Steve's Birding,Wildlife & Walking Blog: Blue Throated Beauty And Fenland Surprises.......Sunday 12th February 2017.

Tuesday 14 February 2017

Blue Throated Beauty And Fenland Surprises.......Sunday 12th February 2017.

With a full day free today and despite the crap forecast,i decided to head south into the Fens and hopefully see the reported Bluethroat,this is how the day unfolded.
I was up early,got the car packed and headed off south,in what some would still regard as night time in the hope of seeing the afore mentioned Bluethroat.This is an incredible record for the time of year and is the first time i have ever heard of one wintering here in the UK.
After the sat nav took me first to the wrong area,down a horrible,rough,farm track i eventually managed to find the car park to Willow Tree Fen.
Unfortunately it was still peeing down,as it had for most of the past 24 hours,so full waterproofs and wellies were the order of the day.
As i walked down the entrance track,i could see 3 or 4 people watching an area and i hoped the bird was still on show.After a quick chat,no pun intended.....the people who had been watching the Bluethroat told me it had just flown into the adjacent ditch.
After a few minutes,he was back out again and what a little beauty!.I watched as he hopped about along the grass verge,continuously cocking his rufous based tail.He was looking a bit worse for wear due to the heavy rain,but his plumage detail was much brighter than i had imagined it would look,with quite a good amount of blue and smaller amounts of red.He looked quite at home,catching plenty of insects and at one point a huge earth worm which took some swallowing,with him just sitting with his mouth open for a few moments before eventually swallowing it all.
What a confiding little bird he was and he showed incredibly well,as this species sometimes does,what a great privilege to see such a smart bird and in winter.
It wasn't long before i was joined by birding friend Jim who had also travelled to see this little cracker and thankfully the rain was starting to subside a bit also.We took a few more photos before Jim offered to show me the locations of a few more good birds in the area.
The first place we visited was Four Mile Bridge along the banks of the River Welland,in an area known as Deeping High Bank and within ten minutes of being on site we were both watching a stonking Great-grey Shrike.
The bird is wintering along a small area of hawthorn scrub adjacent to the river and he put on a great show,giving lovely views through the scope and at one point flew vertically upwards and chased a Meadow Pipit into a nearby wood.We didn't see it again afterwards,so we presumed he or she must have caught it.
As we drove off,another nice bonus in the form of 2 Short-eared Owls along the river bank made for another nice sighting to add to the days haul.
Further still along the river and another duo of goodies for the day came in the form of a female Long-tailed Duck and a cracking Great-white Egret.The LTD was hanging about with the local Tuftie flock and gave some nice views,unlike the solitary Egret which just did a close flypast and was later seen patiently hunting along the shallows of a dyke which ran into the river looking for its next meal.
Deeping Lakes was the next site we visited and after a short walk we were watching 4 gorgeous Long-eared Owls.The birds were roosting on an island in the middle of one of the lakes,thankfully out of the way of the public so they can enjoy their winter roost without disturbances.These are the first birds i have seen for a good while and are always a highlight of any day out in my opinion.
After enjoying the beautiful Asios,we retraced our footsteps along Deeping High Bank adding 2 female Scaup on the river to the days already bulging notebook full of sightings to head over to Frampton Marsh RSPB.
As we neared the entrance we could see the wintering wild swan flock and i could see at least 57 Whooper Swans and 2 Bewick's Swans.I'm not sure what they were feeding on in the field,presumably Sugar Beet heads,but they were all caked in mud and it wasn't easy to separate the two species at first.
Jim and myself said our good byes as he went to walk his 2 dogs and i then had a leisurely walk around to the 360 hide.
It was still blowing an ice cold gale,but at least it had stopped raining and i enjoyed some cracking views of the local Wigeon,Brent Geese,Pintail,Lapwings and a huge cloud of Goldies,what a fantastic way to end my days birding at this superb Washland reserve.
I made my way back to the car,cold and wet,but what a brilliant days birding i had just had enjoyed,roll on the next day out.