Another visit to Leighton Moss

The Safari had seen that there were big roadworks planned for this week down towards Martin Mere so with that in mind CR pointed the car  northwards, only to find that serious roadworks are planned in a couple of weeks time along our route out of town that way too. Leighton Moss was our target venue with some good sightings being reported recently on the usual social media info lines. Of most interest to us was news of a Purple Heron which had been seen a couple days earlier but had had no subsequent reports, gone or just hiding in the extensive reedbeds??? Not to worry there were Bitterns, Opsreys, Hobbys and Otters all to be enjoyed. To break the habits of a lifetime we took the long trail up to Lower Hide first, as this was where the Purple Heron had been last reported from. noting the lack of isect life on the way we were pleased to see this Migrant Hawker dragonfly perched up on the edge of the path as we neared the hide.

On entering the hide we were told that we should have been there ten minutes earlier when a Hobby shot past but hadn't reappeared, no signs of any Bitterns, Ospreys or Otters during the morning so far either - not what we wanted to hear really. Only one thing to do - sit and wait for all the action to happen, which eventually it did in the form of a Heron flying in with a big Tench.

It's tempting to think it landed on the drier ground where it could wrangle the fish into a position it could swallow it from rather than risk losing it back into the water where it had caught it. it took a fair bit of wrangling before it went down the hatch but that happened behind the intervening reeds so no photo of the dastardly deed was possible. With its belly full the Heron flew off away to our left and out of sight. It was replaced, much more distantly, by a Great White Egret arriving from the far left. That flew into the favoured roosting spot, the dead tree dead ahead of us beyond the far side of the pool. 

The field on the other side of the road was being cut, probably for silage, and gave us the opportunity to get the tractor in the frame with the egret. Two of our favourite things at the same time!!!

The egret sat up there doing nothing much for ages before dropping down into the far side of our pool, still a long way off, and stalking around slowly for a while without any success. We don't normally see herons/egrets in the water here but after a bit of a dry spell water levels across the reserve are lower than they have been for a long time.

Neither the hoped for Bitterns, Hobbys, Ospreys nor any Otters showed up so we slowly worked our way back to the Causway Hide where we hoped at least one of the aforementioned species would put in an appearance for us. At least we hadn't missed any action was the essence of the news we received from the birders already present. Action was about to follow though when another Heron flew in and began to hunt.

Before long an submarine movement caught its eye and it went into strike pose.

A couple of minutes of ever so carefully adjucting its position followed then....whammmm...a splash...and...gotcha!

It had caught a small jack Pike.

Somehow we missed the action shot whereby the fish is tossed up and is swallowed in mid air. 

Time had flown even though we thought we hadn't seen much so we wandered down to Grisedale hide for our lunch, passing very little at Lillian's hide on the way. For what must be the first time ever we opened the door to find the hide empty so we went to take advantage of 'photographers corner' only to find the pool there was dry and mostly obscured by tall intervening vegetation so we opted for the right hand end instead. Good move, there were three Little Egrets and another Great White Egret stood in the water in front of us and five Red Deer hiding in the tall vegetation on the bund at the back of the pool. There were three hinds, a young stag with rather dangerous looking anters despite the fact they are still covered in velvet, and a young very spotty fawn. With no tines to interlock straight antlers become two daggers which can inflict serious or even fatal wounds on an opponent, unlikely in a proper fight with a dominant stag as our youngster would just run away if challenged but in a practice bout with a stag of similar age the outcome might not be good.

He melted into the thick vegetation leaving the hind he was with listening to our camera shutter clicking.

By this time two of the Little Egrets and the Great White Egret had also done a bunk leaving just the closest Little Egret to fish the pool alone as the  rain began to fall five minutes earlier than forecast. useless these weather forecasters, can't be trusted to get  anything right! The egret was very active, dashing hither and thither after small fish but always seemed to catch them while facing away, it had probably pinned them up in the shallows agains the roots of the reeds rather than being less able to catch them in the open water facing us. his/her need for food outweighs our need for a pic.

Eventually more birders arrived an we were able to point out one of the Red Deer hinds that had re-emerged from the vegetaation after they'd all disappeared, it's amazing how something so big can vanish without leaving a trace, you can't even see the tops of the Thistles shaking where they are moving about. This one came out had a little graze on the Reeds and then lay down in a hollow behind some very tall Water Docks and more-or-less out of sight.

That left just the egret to concentrate on. Again it was darting about after small fish.

After stirring them out of their hiding places with is shivering foot technique.

Several minutes later the Great White Egret came back, swooping in low over where the Red Deer had been stood and landing in front of us.

One of the Little Egrets also returned 

and promptly started to give grief to our resident friend who flew off in a huff.

The newcomer then took up the vacant position where the fish were - it's evil masterplan successfully carried out!

Having exhausted all the possiblities and the weather turning very iffy so no further chance of Hobby for the day we left the main reserve and went down to the saltmarshes. There was little to exhaust here, the mud in the pools was very dry and uninviting to feeding birds and some management works had recently been carried out creating a more varied topography with deeper holes and shallower areas. It'll be good when it fills with water but today the the lack of water combined with the disturbance meant that there was very little on offer. The decision was made to cut our losses and head back towards Base Camp stopping at Conder Green on the way.

From the shelter of the shelter there we had a look at the pool, again the water levels were well down. All the Common Tern nesting rafts had been vacated leaving just a coupleof pairs of Black Headed Gulls with very young fledged offspring and a solitary Avocet with a youngster in tow. In the deeper water away to the right half a dozen Little Grebes fished for 3-Spined Sticklebacks, a small flock of Tufted Ducks floated in the lee of one of the islands trying to get a bit of shelter from wind and driving rain and a couple of dozen Mallards loafed on the far bank.

Across the road the creek was as low as we've ever seen it with barely a trickly running past. There were plenty of Redshanks with a few Curlew and Lapwings but we couldn't find the Spotted Redshank that had been reprted the day before. As CR watched the pool waiting for the Kingfisher to arrive and perch on the brick drainage structure we continued to scan the creek finding a Ruff and then a Greenshank. After a while the Avocets left the pool and came over to the creek, we don't recall seeing them in there before but then there's usually too much water for them to be able to wade in it.

The rasping calls of a Common Tern alerted us to two arriving on the pool, one carring a fish. The second one was disinterested in the potential gift and soon flew off to the south. The fish carrier landed on the point of the island close to the Tufted Ducks and proceeded to eat said fish, a Sandeel, itself and then settled down for a rest.

CR was still waiting for the Kingfisher so we returned to scanning the creek for any sign of the Spotted Redshank. Still no  joy but there were now three Greenshank, one of which had come a little closer.

Back on the pool a small flock of Linnets kept datring back and forth between the nearest island and the roadside hedge to our right and then a larger bird joined them, a Collared Dove, a bird we don't see around Base Camp these days and rearely photograph anywhere so here you go...

Not sure what plant it's picking the seeds from but it certainly had a taste for them. You don't normally associate them being in any shape of form camouflaged but on that muddy background with the pebbles lying around it was quite hard to see with the naked eye from our vantage point about 50 yards or more away.

All good things must come to an end and so this safari had run its course and the time had come to hit the road back to Base Camp.

Where to next? (Minor) Car troubles transpired to us missing a couple of safaris but we'll be on the road again somewhere soon.

In the meantime let us know who's hiding in the tall grass in your outback.