Paxton Pits NewYear Birds

Spent an enjoyable couple of hours  yesterday afternoon in the Cobham Hide just watching the birds - the light was very poor but managed a few images of the action including this Long-tailed Tit, one of a party of 4 or 5 who landed in the bush in front of the hide. The Marsh Harrier paid 'its' (female or juvenile) usual visit. The Cormorants are coming into breeding plumage as their nesting season can start early January.

Paxton Kingfishers etc

I spent an hour at Paxton Pits today after a morning work party and was rewarded with views of at least two Kingfishers - neither of them the same as last weeks which was a female. Lovely light and reflections for the water birds - Coot, Dabchick, Shoveller, GC Grebe, Mallard, Gadwall, Teal, Raven and Heron

Autumn Bird Movement at Paxton

Plenty of signs of autumn migration at Paxton where possibly 4 Hobbies were busy catching late dragonflies over the lakes stocking up for their long journey south while the number of winter visiting ducks is building up with lots of Wigeon now whistling in lots of areas together with Gadwall r-resident and visiting. Marsh Harrier and Red kite patrolled the air and one of our resident Kingfishers visited a close post.

Life and Death on Heronry Lake

This Little Egret was clearly hunting something among the vegetation and the camera reveals they were Red-eyed Damselflies which I hadn't recorded before on Heronry South. The Heron has caught a good-sized fish though can't ID it from the photo! Several Great White Egrets present plus a very large number of Gadwall - wonderful ducks in flight. I suspect these Migrant Hawkers will end up on somebody's menu but getting on with displaying, mating etc at the moment

Wetland Birds Count

Paxton Pits along with other wetland reserves carry out a monthly count of the birds on the Pits  (WeBS). Beautiful morning for our December count though difficult for ID etc against the light. The most prominent birds for our route round Rudd, Cloudy and Weedy Lakes were the 40 or so Canada Geese plus this one Canada GooseXGreylag hybrid. Looking it up they appear quite common and very consistent in marking with just the head, neck length and beak revealing the Greylag parentage. All the usual Ducks plus a solitary Grey heron. Couldn't resist photographing the Long-tailed Tit at the end of the walk.