The previous few days had seen an almost nationwide invasion of Grey Phalaropes, even across the Midlands (except Oxfordshire of course). The recent stormy weather had blown lots of these elegant little wading birds, mainly juveniles, off their migration routes along the west coast and into inland reservoirs and lakes. Phalaropes are well known for being fearless, since where they've come from there are very few humans, and therefore readily approachable and thus give great photographic opportunities.
I had gone years without ever seeing a Grey Phalarope until one turned up at Farmoor a couple of years ago, that was quickly followed by two more at the same site and then by another at Grimsbury last year and even another at my local wetlands reserve in Bicester. After finishing work early I gathered Mrs Caley from home and headed to Boddington reservoir where a Grey Phalarope had been reported that morning. We arrived at the north east corner of the reservoir, where the bird was purported to be, and walked out into a near gale force headwind and tried to steady the bins in order to scrutinise the near shore. Apart from a Little Egret and some Black-headed Gulls that were in danger of being blown away there was nothing and I wondered how such a small bird as a Phalarope would even want to be in such a place in those conditions. Except of course that Phalaropes are generally breeding birds of the high arctic and spend a lot of their time at sea in the winter so they are quite happy in such brutal weather. The phone sprung into life and the incoming message informed me that the report of a Grey Phalarope at Boddington was erroneous! That would explain then why I couldn't find it! But no worries since one had also been called as being present in the north eastern corner of Daventry Country Park reservoir..... ahh I see what happened there.
It is less than 10 miles between the two reservoirs so we were parked up and walking out along the dam end of Daventry reservoir less than 20 minutes later. It was every bit as breezy and the water was lapping wildly at the boulders that form the walls of the dam. The north eastern corner was right at the far end and we could see another couple scanning the area with a scope so I assumed that they'd be on the bird. Wrong assumption since they hadn't found it at all despite looking for over half an hour. I'd left my scope in the car but had made many scans of my own with the binoculars but hadn't located the bird either. Mrs Caley spotted it though, that's my girl, right in amongst the froth and foam at the shoreline. It was tricky to see as it hopped around from one piece of floating vegetation to another and often swam in the frothy water looking for food. For such a small creature, Phalaropes are roughly the size of a Sparrow but much more dainty, it seemed hardly troubled at all by the turbulent water and rode the waves expertly, it was quite at home. The other couple hadn't found it since they were looking too far away! The juvenile Grey Phalarope was only 30 feet away and I helped them by focussing their scope on the right place since it was the first of the species they'd ever seen.
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| Tricky to see in the frothy water |
I left Mrs Caley chatting away to the other birders, safely ensconced on a seat and made for a slightly more sheltered spot in amongst the boulders where I could hopefully steady the camera and get some better shots. The Phalarope was working its way along the shoreline and would soon be just 20 feet or so away. However the wind was still blowing a hoolie, holding the camera still was very difficult and to make things worse I was looking almost directly into the afternoon sunshine which meant that the bird would be backlit. But at least the bird was reasonably close.
Since cracking full portrait shots were out of the question I concentrated on watching the waif as it meandered along the rocky bank. It was happy in or out of the water, in fact I reckon it actually enjoyed swimming and was frequently riding the crest of a wave (you must be able to see what I did there?!). It was the swimming action that I tried to capture and began watching for the waves and then shooting rapidly as they reached the Phalarope. It was never once beached by any of them but just swam confidently forward and bobbed up and down like a small motorised rubber duck.
After a few minutes the Phalarope, harrassed by an accompanying Black-headed Gull took first a short flight of a few feet and then a slightly longer one by which it ended up right in front of Mrs Caley's vantage point. Some dames get all the luck! Well she met me once, right? Alright, I never said it was all good luck did I?! This time the Grey Phalarope swam right out in cleaner water but was always within a few feet of the rocks and after another couple of minutes jumped out onto one of the rocks.
A quick preen and brush up (for the bird, not me) and then it flew back to its original place to resume feeding once more. I decided that we'd leave it to it and talked Mrs Caley into visiting Napton reservoir where 2 more juvenile Grey Phalaropes had been seen. Napton is only about 9 miles from Daventry so we would be there in less than 20 minutes too. We'd been to Napton reservoir before, last year, looking for some very elusive Bearded Tits, so I knew the layout. The shallow muddy part of the site, where the Phalaropes would be, is at the south eastern corner which meant that the afternoon sun would be at our backs which is always better for photography and would also be more sheltered from the wind. The car park is right next to the embankment so we were soon heading towards the place where the birds would be. There was only one other birder/togger present too so it would be a nice relaxing little session. I scanned the area from afar and sure enough found both birds easily but they both looked to be some way out from the bank. It was clear that the two birds were at different stages of moult with one being having many more grey feathers on the back than the other.
I asked the other chap present whether either of the Grey Phalaropes had been any closer and just as he replied "no, not really", one flew on to the mud about 30 feet away and began working its way even closer to us. Before it could get really close though it was scared off by a juvenile Grey Heron which landed by the reedbed. It wasn't long though before the other bird worked its way back towards us and allowed some better views although still not really close.
Every so often one of the birds would take flight disturbed by the heron or by one of the many coots that shared the muddy margins. I was lucky enough to capture some nice action shots of one of them.
We watched both birds at length work up and down the muddy edge to the reedbed. The water was almost dead flat calm in such a contrast to the conditions at Daventry and I felt that the Phalarope over there was having a rough old time compared to these two. This pair were absolutely lording it up! At one point both birds were in reasonably close proximity to our position, one swimming in deeper water and the other wading through the gloop. They never got very close to each other though which I found interesting preferring to remain at much more than arms length. If they did get too close to each other then angry sounding warning calls were uttered by both birds.
Despite the strong sunlight I failed to gain many decent shots of these birds. In my defence they are small and at some distance but I love watching them anyway. They are a real treat to see each autumn. After the birds had once more flown back to the furthest area of mud we left for home. As we passed the turn for Grimsbury reservoir in Banbury (another of our local BOS reserves) I jokingly suggested going in for a look to see if a Grey Phalarope had turned up there but had to agree with Mrs Caley that we'd already had a good day so drove straight past. Halfway down the motorway a message came through that a Grey Phalarope had indeed been found there! So we did have one in Oxon! There were also 3 at a reservoir near Stratford and another at Charlecote Park National Trust (couldn't go there since I am very anti the NT on account of their conflicting wildlife policies). That's 8 Grey Phalaropes within a 20 square mile block. A proper good Grey Friday, amazing!
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| "That's all folks"! |
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