Pochard & cormorants on a frosty morning
Dec 5 2012, images by Paul Stevens
In the World Wetlands exhibit at Arundel Wetland Centre, a pair of wild mute swans are disturbing the peace with their strong wing flapping displays across the water. The swans have decided that the small mechanical digger we have been using here is a large bird they must drive away.
Frost is still heavy on the ground but the waters on the reserve are open. Long-tailed tits, blue tits and goldfinches move through the trees above the pens. A dunnock sings at the back while a female chaffinch sits in the scrub an arms length away from the path. She bolts as I raise my camera. A lone long-tailed tit is more co-operative, posing with its cream and black feathers puffed up against the cold.
Many of our visitors have spotted the firecrest I saw last week here in the Woodland loop. There is a flurry of blue tits as our grounds supervisor Sam hops the fence rail to refill the bird feeders. An impatient robin hops along the railing near the seed bucket.
In the reedbed the water has iced over. Snipe have been feeding on the area we recently cut midway through the reedbed. Ripples in the water betray the presence of a water rail, stepping gingerly among the tangle of moss covered branches. I watch three dunnocks in a territorial dispute. Their singing is a squabble as they hop about the branches of a decaying tree. A blue tit is working his way through along a line of reed and plants, clinging to stalks midway up in a search for insects. Only a slight rustle and shaking stems give away his position.
At the Scrape hide we have cut the reed in front of the hide to coax in the snipe often seen here, giving visitors a better view. I see two snipe further back and watch a pair of optimistic mallards in a head bobbing display.
Near the Sand Martin hide sits a male pochard with his red brown-head and subtle grey body. He maybe in from eastern europe to escape the bitter winter there.
From the hide I count four cormorants fishing between breaks to catch the sun on their outstretched wings. A lapwing sits on the island directly to the left of the hide and four more sit on the back islands. I count 11 snipe on one island and three on the other.
