birds and birdwatch,

Camera collection.

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A few pictures that I took while walking in the New Forest to collect our Badger sett trail cameras which had been out in the forest for a week.

A juvenile Fallow deer Buck. He will be a magnificent beast in a few years.

A small herd of juvenile Fallow deer hinds.

It was nice to see a Grey wagtail they are a relatively rare bird with a population of just 38,000 breeding pairs in the UK. They are, subsequently, classified as Red Status bird due to this low number.

Tufties.

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Some more views of Tufted Ducks – these were on the old mill pond at Bishop’s Waltham near Winchester.

The drakes are black and white with a golden eye and sport a tuft. The hens are more camouflaged and brown in colour.

As kids, we called Tufted ducks Tufties.

On the water.

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Another visit for an hour on a wet Friday morning to a local Lakeside park with the aim of watching the resident Grebes, it was nice to see 6 birds in 3 pairs so I am hopeful there will be some nests this year.

A local radio-controlled yacht group were sailing their pond yachts on one of the lakes, this quiet past-time does not conflict with the life on the water.

Tufted Ducks are smaller than the mallard. They have a small crest although you can not see it in my photographs.

Graylag geese seem very at home with the visitors and allow you to get close to them.

Along the river.

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Another walk down the River Hamble dry but very windy – hard to stand up at times!

Curlew.

Dark-bellied Brent goose.

Wigeon.

Greenshank. There are less than 1,000 Greenshanks in the whole country during the winter, but soon they will be heading North towards their breeding grounds.

Common Redshank.

 

Lesser black-backed gulls.

Avocet.

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Avocets have started to arrive here on the South Coast. Ist photographs of these beautiful birds this year.

You will note one of the birds is ringed. Info sent to ringer – below is their reply.

Thanks for the sighting of GB/BG.

I ringed this bird as a chick in June 2014 at Needs Ore Reserve (beside the Beaulieu River estuary).

Since then it has spent most of its time at Titchfield and Farlington. However, it was seen over the winter of 2017-18 at Poole Harbour in Dorset.

In the summer of 2018 it bred at Titchfield and since then there have been summer and winter sightings of it at Titchfield, suggesting it now spends most of its time there.