Roger was only able to get out
for the morning, which suited me as I have been suffering with a nasty cough
all week. We decided to go to Gonalston
in Nottinghamshire as there had not only been a Glossy Ibis present for some
time now but more interestingly a Lesser Spotted Woodpecker was visiting
feeders in a garden close by.
I arrived at Roger’s and we
had a look in his garden before departing where we saw a male Blackcap and a
Lesser Redpoll.
We saw very little on route
and on arrival we found Malcolm overlooking the feeders but there had been no
sign of the Lesser Spotted Woodpecker so far and the Glossy Ibis had gone it
hiding. We parked up and walked back to view a rather wet field in which the
ibis had been feeding. Malcolm indicated
where the ibis had gone and was probably now feeding amongst some juncus that
surround a small copse in the centre of the field. Malcolm had seen two Grey Wagtails earlier
and a couple of Snipe but there was no sign now. As we scanned the area we did see a Green
Woodpecker and a Sparrowhawk and Buzzard flew over. A Grey Wagtail eventually returned but after
well over an hour there was still no sign of either of the target birds. A birder standing next to us suddenly
announced that the ibis had appeared briefly but had disappeared again. We tried viewing the area from different
angles with no joy and eventually settled back where we had been initially. Several Mallard then suddenly flew out of the
juncus and a few minutes later a second party emerged and this time the Glossy
Ibis was with them. It landed reasonable
close to give good views but it was surprising how easy it could disappear
behind some rather sparse juncus. With
the ibis in the bag we were able to focus on the feeders but we saw a very
little a few Blue, Great and Long-tailed Tits were all that were visiting the
feeders and by 11:30 the woodpecker had been seen in four hours. After a Sparrowhawk appeared at the feeders
we called it a day having one final look at the ibis, which we saw in flight
again before we departed. Malcolm stayed
on for another hour but there was still no sign of the woodpecker, which was
disappointing as these are becoming increasingly difficult to see.
Glossy Ibis
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