For my final twitchette of 2017 I visited neighbouring Glos to re-experience a wintering scarcity that seemingly in Oxon fears to tread. An unusually quiet December has offered little in the way of either national or local birding. But paying a visit to the city of Gloucester’s third long-staying Penduline Tit of recent winters, and my own sixth in Great Britain filled a short Saturday nicely.
A pair of these birds wintered through the first three months of 2016 at a flood alleviation site just outside Gloucester by the northern by-pass (see here). Today I drove on a further couple of miles to the A40 / A38 Tewkesbury Road junction beside which another PT had set up home for the last 15 days. The site was very easy both to find and access, and upon approach several birders were visible to the left on land below the road embankment.
Plock Court wetland area, Gloucester
Plock Court Wetland (SO837204) is one corner of a playing fields area that is prone to flooding in winter. So faced with the difficulty of managing this site, the local authority instead fenced it off and turned it into a small wetland nature reserve. The information board tells how Green Sandpiper and Little Egret might be seen on the two scrapes here, so the present masked bandit is probably the most notable visitor to date.
Through my two hours on site from 12:20pm the Penduline Tit, a first-winter male divided its time between feeding in the reedmace of the scrapes and resting in the roadside hedge to the rear. When in the foreground the bird was always flighty and often difficult to pinpoint. But on repairing to the hedge it would often perch quite prominently, preening and surveying its surroundings. Fortunately those present all kept to the near side of the pools, so the PT was watchable for good periods of time. Nobody chased it around and this was certainly the easiest to observe of its kind that I have encountered.
I would not describe the camera images below as photographs. Perhaps in their all too obvious imperfection they more resemble paintings. Others might say they are out of focus or full of noise. But since I am seldom likely to gain pin-sharp and perfect competition entries with my equipment I might as well do what I can in the editing suite, then be as pleased as is possible with any “creative effects”. The bottom line is that how ever these pictures might be described I rather like them just as they are.
County birding in Oxfordshire has matched the national picture in rather fizzling out again towards the end of this year. A week hence I commence the next stage of my personal development through a three week, solo winter break on a new continent North America. So today will be my last at the petrol station where I have worked part-time for the last 16 months, instead cutting loose and heading off to experience an entirely new and different wildlife.
Ramblings and Scribblings 