The gloom continues but it's sure better than wet n windy

The Safari was taken up to Leighton Moss by CR where we met IH joined by young LH who hopefully will become a more regular safari member although she currently lives in a different  part  of the country.

First stop was a look from Lillian's Hide where there was a good selection of waterfowl and a few well secreted Snipe. However we didn't stop too long as we wanted to show LH one of the reserve's specialities, the Bearded Tits, so we walked down to the grit trays along the path to the Grisedale Hide withall our fingers crossed. The woody walk was quite, almost devoid of life and the reedbed section not much better and we weren't hearing the tell-tale 'pings' of any Bearded Tits as we neared the grit trays. The grit trays are important as Bearded Tits change their diet in the autumn from summer invertebrates to winter seeds. They dine almost exclusively on the seeds of the Phragmites reeds in the winter and to help dogest these swallow grit to help grind the seeds up. Early in the season their crops hold no grit so they visit the trays regularly but as the season progresses some but not all gets passed out the other end so the don't need to top up so often and we're now at the start of that not so often time of year. Today we were unlucky as it seemed to be a no grit required type of day. After waiting around a fair while with no joy we moved on to the hide where we hoped a Red Deer or two might be on show for LH but again they too must have heard a newby was with us and not wanting to get her over-excited decided not to put in an appearance as well. 

On the pool was the usual waterfowl fare, a few Coots swam around in the gloom, like our last safari photos today had to be taken at ISO Ludicrous.

Ducks included snoozing Shovelers

and more active Gadwalls

High up on the Great Black Backed Gull nesting platform (aka Osprey platform) a Cormorant kept an eye on proceedings from its lofy perch.

Meanwhile back on the water a nice drake Teal swam past not too far away

Before drifting off to drift off with a pair of sleepy Shovelers

All of a sudden there was a commotion and a burst of activity off to our right, a Sparrowhawk had launched an attack on some Snipe hiding unseen by us at the water's edge over that way. All the Snipe escaped and were up up and away off to the safety of another pool while the Sparrowhawk flew into a nearby bush and waited in the hope they wouldn't notice her and return.

After casting her beady eyes this way and that it must have become obvious there were no other potential  lunches close by as she soon left the bush and swooped low over the water right in front of us giving superb views but too quick for our cameras, sometimes though the image is etched into your memory far better than binary code onto an SD card and this was one of those occasions. There were no Snipe flushed as she shot low across the length of the pool - time to try her luck at another one. The scattered ducks soon settled down and among them a drake Pintail

came out from its hiding place and started to do a bit of head-bobbing displaying.

A distant female Marsh Harrier simply rerfused to come any closer and soon disappeared into one of the unviewable pools at the back of the reedbed.

It was now time for another wander so back we went past the still quiet grit trays, listening for the tell-tale 'pings' we only heard squaling Water Rails and chuntering Cetti's Warblers calling unseen from the dense reedbed. There was little to get excited about from the Tim Jackson Hide and a good wait in there gave us no real photo opportunities and sadly no Red Deer either. 

Moving on we retraced our steps back to Lillian's Hide where a female Teal was dabbling among the reed bases right in front of us.

She looked up every time she heard the camera shutters clicking

A female Shoveler dabbled, or should that be sieved, past too.

She was approached by a male

who's scratching looked like he was waving at either the female or us.

Food was now on everyones' minds but to get to the butties in the cars we had to pass the Feeding Station which was lively with a good selection of birds. And if they perched in the right place offered some nice autumn colour pics.

Star of the show might have been this friendly Robin singing for his supper (lunch) at the passers-by who might have a mealworm or two in their pockets

He was certainly giving it some welly!

However he was usurped by a tiny Goldcrest that was spotted flitting around a small tree to his right and all attention turned away from the him; we're saying he's a he but at this time of year he could easily be a she as both sexes sing to defend a winter territory for themselves and although they might be able to tell the difference at a glance or by ear us Humans can't.

There was a second one further back flitting around an Ivy covered Hawthorn bush but we didn't manage to connect with that one. Nor did we manage to connect with the Marsh Tit that was repeatedly visiting the feeders. Just as we were about to leave a Treecreeper was pointed out working its way up the large Oak nearby.

It even did some arboreal gymanastics for us.

Pies and butties were taken to the Causeway Hide where a few Black Headed Gulls jockied for position on the post in front of the window. One of which was ringed by good friend KB down at Martin Mere as a youngster in 2022 then made it's way to here by the autumn and has only been recorded in the autumn and winter up here at Leighton Moss since. In fact our record is the first for, give or take a couple of days, exactly a year begging the question where does it go in the spring and summer.

If you see a bird with a coloured ring like this one or even without letters you can report them very easily here.
The posts seemed to be a good place to have a bit of a preen and feather ruffle...good to see some sunshine at last too.

As usual there were large flocks of Gadwall and Coot.

Just look at those vermiculations on the drake Gadwall - taking understated to a higher level!

Coots too are understated with lovely shades of dark grey and almost black when the light catches them right, and then there's that somewhat menacing red eye.

One of the Coots played at being a Black Headed Gull and found a (much shorter) post on which to have a preen and a stretch - enjoy those weird feet!

The Gadwall and Coot had another function apart from their aesthetic beauty, Otter spotters! On a couple of occasions we saw commotion in the flocks and birds fleeing en masse but didn't see what had caused the panic. Then a Buzzard flew across the water and strangely came straight back but had somehow morphed into a male Marsh Harrier andd while watching that a dark shape appeared low in the water right in front of us not too far out, an Otter's head. How had that snuck past all the Coots and Gadwall, was all their attention taken by the raptors overhead? All to soon it was lost behind the reeds closer to the hide but at last LH had got her first view of an Otter even if it was only brief. Now we'd seen it all we had to do was wait for it to reappear which eventually it did but much more distant along the reed edge to the far right and then again again even more distantly but gave much more prolonged views...a scope would have been useful. Somewhat surprisingly that was our first sighting of an Otter this year. We watched it slink into the reedbed and then decided to spend the rest of the afternoon down  on the saltmarshes. Down at the Allen Hide the low November sun (yes that strange glowing thing in the sky) made viewing difficult and uncomfortable, we think everyone still has their retinas! but it did make for nice arty silhouette shots.

Looking southwards from the Eric Morecambe Hide was more or less the same although we did pick out a distant Dunlin among the silhouettes of Redshanks and Lapwings. One such group of Redshanks held a Spotted Redshank which was incredibly difficult to pick out until we were offered a look down the finder's scope. With viewing conditions awkward to say the least we swapped over to the other side of the hide to view the Allen Pool in much better light. We spent the time waiting for a Kingfisher not to show counting the Little and Great White Egrets to make sure IH's Herons were well beaten and following this Redshank around as it waded, paddled and swam across the nearest bit of the pool looking for Brown Shrimps n stuff.

Eventually we did get to see the colour of a Redshank's shanks

and then ended the safari with a cracking male Mallard. We don't care if they are common they're still a fabulous looking bird.

 

All the time we were out LH was borrowing her dad's camera and once home put together this little snippet of video to give you a flavour of the day.

We look forward to her coming along in the future and can't wait to watch her next videos of our safaris

Where to next? Not sure yet but we'll be out on safari somewhere in the north west before too long.

In the meantime let us know who's got the reddest legs in your outback.