Psilos
Bird Journal |
Tuesday February
14th 2006 |
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"Internal
struggles" |
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Valentines day and also my
youngest sons eighth birthday dawned dull and wet with the weatherman
promising sun and blustery showers. Looking out of the window I couldn’t
see much sun and didn’t feel very inspired but today I wasn’t
going to let the weather get the better of me. If I couldn’t take
photographs then I would just birdwatch instead (something I rarely
do on its own as the thought of leaving the house without my camera
makes me break out in a cold sweat. I decided upon a drive to Fairhaven
lake at Lytham on the west coast just below Blackpool. There is always
promise of some good birds there. |
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During the journey of some
30 miles or so I passed through some very heavy rain showers and was
beginning to think I had made a big mistake when a thin blue line appeared
on the horizon. Getting closer to the coast my spirits were lifted.
There was blue sky, lots of it, and the rain had stopped. Maybe I would
have a good day after all? First stop the beach. Last time I was there,
there were plenty of dunlin and redshank feeding on the sands. Today
though the tide was in and apart from the odd oystercatcher flying up
and down there was nothing about. No matter then I would have a walk
around the lake. Three female goldeneye were sat out in the middle of
the lake. Diving and feeding and providing target practice for the gulls
that kept diving at them. Couldn’t see any males and indeed didn’t
see any all day. Then another bird surfaced quite close by and suddenly
things took a turn for the better. |
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A male red breasted merganser
was busy feeding and I hopefully was going to get a photograph. The
trouble is, all best plans always go wrong and birds always manage to
outsmart us. By the time I had gotten down the muddy slippery slope
the merganser was in the middle of the lake and all hopes of a close
up were well and truly dashed. To top it all whilst I was attaching
my monopod to my camera a cormorant surfaced only feet away from where
I was standing and then dived, whilst, I think, smirking at my feeble
attempts to point the camera somewhere vaguely in his direction. |
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So all in all not a very good
start. But no matter. Two cormorants were now swimming around in the
middle of the lake and I noticed that one of them was acting very strangely
indeed. He kept rearing up out of the water, swimming well above the
level that cormorants normally do and pointing his beak to the sky.
As there was another cormorant nearby I thought maybe it was some kind
of courtship display except that the bird was a juvenile. Swimming towards
the inner island his neck seemed to take on a different shape, sort
of squat and broad, almost triangular. This was something I certainly
hadn’t seen before. Jumping from the water the bird appeared restless
and started to writhe his neck. Then he lowered his head, opened his
beak and heaved…I know the correct word is to regurgitate but
heaving was what he did. Sliding from his mouth came one very large
green eel. Before it was fully out he gulped again and took it down,
writhing his neck and gaping his beak as it went. I watched him do this
repeatedly for another five minutes before he finally settled and got
down to the serious business of drying his wings. |
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The lake was very quiet today
with very few ducks. Goldeneye, Pochard, tufted duck and Mallard were
there in small numbers only. At one point three mute swans came flying
up the lake but the sun was shining straight at me and so I didn’t
even bother to take their photo. One swan at the back yielded a number
ring which I will pass onto the Northwest swan group. |
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On the road side of the lake
I came across four turnstone and indeed they were almost under my feet
before I noticed them. Photographing them though proved difficult. The
slope upon which they were feeding was steep and after my previous encounters
with water and having already lost one phone to the bottom of this lake
I wasn’t taking any chances. The sun was shining straight at me
and the birds had their back to it so getting a catch light in their
eyes was also going to be problematic. Wasting no time I got down flat
on my stomach and set up my camera on these tame little birds that were
only eight feet away. For the next ten minutes I watched them feed.
Some of the time they came so close that my camera would no longer focus.
Their eyes never left me, they were always alert but they tolerated
me totally and I eventually got the close ups that were so lacking from
earlier. |
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A trip to the beach once the tide had gone out didn’t really yield very much. The usual gulls, jackdaws and oystercatchers. The only birds of note were a flock of a dozen curlew that flew out to sea, some Pintails and a lone shelduck out on the sea. The jackdaws were very accommodating too. I sat on the sand and photographed them whilst they fed very close by. All in all it had turned out to be quite a fruitful day. Bird numbers and species were low but the exotic looking Merganser is always a joy to see. Watching the cormorants’ internal struggles and the close encounter with the Turnstones were also little gems that I have now come to expect from the rich feast of nature that is always around us |
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