At Long Last...

While some patch birders may have wild dreams and fantasies of rare birds gracing their patch, I don't set the bar that high.  No, my most sought after patch tick isn't the kind anyone else (at all) would be interested in, it's not even a local scarcity!  Even after two years of searching with great scrutiny I have been unable to find one.  Mock if you will, but this seemingly impossible tick, is Gadwall. Why would they not come to park?  Surely it's not that bad... I was surprised to say the least, when yesterday evening, at long last the search came to an end.  I gratefully came across three Gadwall on the main lake, sleeping on the far side from me, even from that distance the grey of the two males was distinctive. Patch lifer.
 As I walked round to approach closer to the Gadwall, the distinctive call of a Kingfisher started, and there it  was, flying over the lake. By the time I had circled the lake I'd achieved some much better views of the Gadwall and the Kingfisher decided to show twice more. A treat for all the hours on the patch recently?   Such a satisfying find.

Heading to the patch this morning, the Gadwalls sadly were gone, and I was back to scanning the ducks for them without success.  Oh well. The next few hours were spent trying to accumulate a day list record for the patch, something I've been unable to beat for probably more than a year now, the current being thirty seven. And it certainly did seem on track for the first two hours, but then it got rather tricky.  the list was (typically) stuck at thirty seven. Would I have to leave on such tantalising a number?  It was just too much.  On the cusp of caving, and giving up, I was saved with the call of a Chiffchaff.  Which conveniently was followed by a view of the little bird.  Thirty eight!  As day-lists go, sure it's terrible.  But for the patch, it's pretty much fantastic.
 Worth almost missing lunch...

The Joys of Patch Birding.

As I have often mentioned on this blog my patch is not the kind of place birders would usually choose to go.  There have been many days when I have seen nothing more attention grabbing than a Little Grebe.  But on the days it comes together it is all worth it.  I have had few of those days, but I will let on now that today was one of them.

 The joys of a local patch is that you know what to expect in certain areas, you know generally what you can hope to see.  If you were - like me, a wildlife photographer and visited Valentines Park for the first time, you might not choose to come back.  That however is your loss.  Not mine, because I do choose to come back.  And if you know the right areas some great opportunities can be had.  Valentines, being an urban park, sees a lot of people.  The wildlife also sees a lot of people.  Thus it becomes somewhat accustomed to their presence.  Not enough to tolerate people walking directly at it (save in the case of Squirrels) or too close but still, more tolerable than their cousins in the true wilds.

 I've been particularly lucky on my patch with Green Woodpeckers.  They still are shy and flighty, but not as bad as elsewhere I must admit.  I've managed a couple of pleasing images, nothing too spectacular, but I'm working on it.

Anyway, back to today.  We thought we would pop around to see if we could spot Valentino.  The all famous Med Gull back for his/her 14th Winter.  First look at the lake and we didn't spot it.  So we moved on and at the fish pond we had our first stroke of luck - the first two Shoveler's of the season!  This came as a surprise as I don't usually see them until winter usually.  The lighting was quite nice on the lake so I fired off a few shots.

We then moved on to see if we could find the Green Woodpeckers (that shot was from a couple of weeks back) but they were not to be seen, so it was that we moved to the canal.  Where I had just a little bit of luck with a Grey Wagger....

 To top it all off we finished the day with fantastic views of Valentino, the best I've yet had!  A day total of 32 was reached, which is pretty good for the patch.  Also some fairly pleasing images.  So a very good day at the patch.

 It proves that you really don't need to travel far to find amazing wildlife.  Valentines Park is just a couple of hundred meters from my house!

Back to the Patch.

Last week you may remember me mentioning that I have, to some degree neglected my patch of late. If you can class the last six weeks under 'of late'.  Today however I decided that it had gone on for too long.  I set foot once again in the park.  It was by no means a bad patch day either.  Valentines Park, being comprised by tarmac paths, man-made lakes and well manicured grass is not exactly the most wildlife friendly of parks.  As such, it makes finding a bird you perhaps would elsewhere have dismissed something to get excited about.
 Today was a rather lucky day.  For only the second time -I think- both Green and Great-Spotted Woodpeckers were seen!  And if that wasn't enough there were two Greens.
 Now I'm sure on many people's patch this is not big deal.  Something to expect even.  But on mine it's a pretty momentous occasion.

A total of 26 species was recorded, which, considering my best patch day list is 37 is not to poor a count.  I find winter to be by far the best time for getting the higher patch lists. Hopefully it won't be long now....