Third time lucky

A mostly sunny afternoon, and the gales had died down - one last attempt at the firecrest was necessary. I was encouraged by David M's discovery of an even rarer bird at the reserve on Friday, a dusky warbler - which had somehow mistaken Lancashire for its usual wintering grounds of Southeast Asia. In addition, there was the chance our wintering Iceland gull would be there, as it spends some time at the mere when it's not foraging for scraps at a local waste processing plant. Plenty of chances then.

I've rotated this photograph to show the bird more clearly - it forages vertically, as in the photo at the top.

The one downside was my camera's low battery. I stupidly left the charger in Scotland, so am eking out the remaning charge while I sort out getting a replacement - fortunately the 5D mark III can last well over a week on a single charge, even with moderate usage (though using it for video is another matter entirely). I knew I'd have to ration my shots, so no photographing common species, unless they were posing especially well.

My first views - a pity the in flight shot was misfocused.

Well in fact I did see lots of lovely common birds the moment I entered the park, on the way to the reserve. A proper winter 'mixed tit' flock - long tails, chaffinches, great tits, goldfinches, and a great spotted woodpecker, working their way slowly alongside my path. The woodpecker gave great views, until I got my camera out, when it retreated to higher branches. But a treecreeper appeared, and fed low down and close by, and I got my best shots ever of this species (see above).

I sped over to the firecrest's haunt, and found a solitary bird watcher, who had been waiting patiently for some hours. While he ate a sandwich, I noticed a flock of long-tailed tits (the fourth flock I'd seen since leaving the house). The firecrest sometimes hangs around with these other birds, so I wandered up the path to look. And at last, one of the birds was my quarry. I got a few shots, but lost it when I beckoned the other man over. It reappeared closer, and worked slowly and methodically through the brambles towards the mere. Many other people arrived, and watched it, but I'd already got the shots I wanted, so I left soon after - they stood hoping it would reappear, but I'm not sure it did.

On a high from this, I decided to spend a lot of time looking for the warbler - nobody else had seen it that day, despite the area's best bird folk searching for hours. The light was good, and I had plenty of time, so I decided to be as thorough as I could. To cut a long story short, I didn't find it and neither did anyone else. I also missed the long eared owls, but I've seen one already this month. I did see a treecreeper - which is apparently an exceptional rarity on the reserve - and more exciting to me, a water rail feeding under shrubs, only my third sighting ever.

The one serious birder I told about this find was distinctly unimpressed - their loss!

Finally, I came to the far side of the patch, and saw a lovely female stonechat. It posed wonderfully, first on a hawthorn, then on dry grasses, and I got plenty of good shots between passing shower clouds, of which I've included a selection here. The temperature dropped towards sunset, I got caught in a heavy hailstorm, and I lost my gloves (but got them back today), but I was more than happy with the day. More like this please!