Psilos Bird Journal
Thursday September 27th 2007
     
"Death of a 350d - Out of my comfort zone"
 
Whooper swans
     
Having seen Pink footed geese moving through Marshside recently in their thousands I was reasonably confident of seeing a Pink footed spectacular at Martinmere. When the geese first arrive they take to the mere. Later when the Whoopers arrive they move out to the fields. Also thousands of geese stop over and migrate further south to spend the winter on the wash. So if I wanted to see them in flocks thousands strong and at close quarters now was the time to see them.
     
Mallards
     
My day had not intially started well. A bag containing my 350d camera had fallen to the floor breaking my camera. So I was forced to use, in my view, the far inferior 300d. Some people say that this camera that started off the digital revolution is a brilliant camera. I used it for two months when I first bought it but quickly passed it onto my son as there is nothing that I like about it. It is slow and clunky and with no tracking focus and I was to get very frustrated throughout the day.


Arriving at Martinmere I didnt even have to venture inside to know the geese had arrived enmasse. Skeins were everywhere and the sound of Pink feet calling filled the air. Typically though the birds were all leaving and if I didnt hurry there would be no birds left to see on the mere.

 
Thousands of birds were still present on the mere but they were a long way off and if I wanted closer views I was going to have to be patient and wait until birds arrived back. Little did I know how short a time I would have to wait. Less than thirty minutes later our ears were alerted to the distant sound of geese. It was faint but with the way the noise was esculating it was obvious that a sizeable flock was on its way in. Sadly the arrival was coming from behind us and there was noway of seeing them until they dropped over the hide and trees onto the mere. Suddenly they were here. The sound was deafening and the skies went dark as close to five thousand geese dropped out of the sky like a huge batallion of parachutists, skiffling wildly and dropping into the water. With just a camera there is noway you can record the magnitude of this spectacle that went on for a full five minutes. You just have to sit and watch in complete awe at the force of nature in its wildest form.
 
As hoped the shere number of birds on the water pushed them forward and we were soon getting the views that we had hoped for.
Besides Pink footed geese there were also reports of a few pale bellied Brent geese, Trying to find them though was like trying to find a needle in a hay stack and I never got lucky. Eight Whooper swans have also come in very early to join the three resident birds that cant fly. Duck numbers are still very low with only a few teal, pochard and pintail being recorded. A lone heron put some birds up and a persistant cormorant spent time fishing quite close in. Three Marsh harriers and a couple of Buzzards, including one very pale bird were also around but at all times were very distant
Greylag geese
Numbers of Greylag geese were also quite high. I think these geese have such wonderful robust characters. I think the descriptive term a gaggle of geese was never more fitting than in the photo below.


Towards the end of the afternoon the geese came even closer, coming out of the water onto the grassbank in front of the hide. I was also able to watch them bathing and preening at close quarters.
 
 
Today had been a day of mixed emotions. Breaking my camera and having to use a camera that was frustrating at best did not make my day. Neither did the fact that later I discovered the 300d was showing signs of shutter failure. Two broken cameras in one day now that is some going! i was certainly out of my comfort zone today and as a result most photographs went in the bin. However nothing could spoil the spectacular scenes that I witnessed today. The full force of nature happening right in front of me. It is something that I never tire of watching whether I have a camera or not.