Well I certainly made the camera work for its keep today with a Pochard way out on the water and a Kingfisher down a hole in near darkness.
A late afternoon trip to Fly Flatts was postponed when I got a call from NK who had just turned up a drake Pochard on Mixenden reservoir, a very rare wildfowl for our area although Nigel seems to have a nose for Pochard turning up the last one at Ogden 4/7/15.
Mixenden is not dog friendly so I was getting ready to go alone until they started running round me with tails wagging knowing that it was birding time so being a softy the 3 of us headed for Mixenden. A walk up the track at the school end was the easy bit but scrambling 2 dogs over a wall is no easy task but after nearly dropping Ollie and nearly losing Pippa we eventually made it to the banking.
A good scan round was disheartening to find 1 Cormorant and nothing more but ducks tend to get under the overhanging trees along the west shoreline so I was,nt too worried although Pochard, Wigeon and Teal types tend to stick well out in the water.
After 20 minutes scanning I admitted defeat and put it out on the grapevine that there was no sign of the Pochard. On leaving I bumped into DJS who was scoped up and ready to give it another go so I decided to try save the session by seeing if anything had appeared at Ogden.
As I pulled away a phone call from Dave saying the duck had appeared near to the north end of the water where it must have been under the trees.
Dogs and gear back out of the car and a long walk up the lane to the nw of the reservoir where I knew there was access to the water, or at least there was until YW have decided to put a locked gate on it.
By now the Pochard was mid way between Dave and me but visible from where I was without going through the dog over the wall system again.
Out of range and poor light meant a few record shots but after 30 minutes wait it drifted slightly nearer for some sub standard photos.
Well done to NK for finding the bird and DJS for re locating it.
Just time now for a quick look on the water at Ogden which held the usual small gulls, Canadas and Mallards but good to find the Kingfisher back in its favourite sluice gate area . Its been buzzing around the shoreline a few days but now seems to be settling back in its wintering area. Another photographic challenge aiming down into the dark hole in grim light.
BS