Ducking out

By coincidence, I had two unconnected appointments at Stratford Hospital today - routine blood tests at 11am, and an eye clinic consultation, for which R would need to drive me, at 2pm. Rather than us making two separate car journeys, R suggested that we should do the whole thing in one trip, and spend the intervening time walking around the park and having a light lunch at Charlecote - so that's what we did.

The last time I walked round Charlecote there were birds, and bird song, everywhere, but today it was bizarrely quiet: even the heronry only had one Grey Heron in it, so far as I could see, though there were also two Little Egrets on the river bank below it. But on the plus side, there was a pair of Goosanders on the lake, which was a first for me at this site. We saw the male first - resplendent on his green and cream breeding plumage, but as always (I find), difficult to photograph well. It was only when we went through the gate into Hill Park and approached the lake from the other side that we suddenly saw the female, who was rocking this season's shaggy redhead look. She followed her man along the lake for a short distance, stopped for a brief bath, and then suddenly took off eastwards along the lake, with the male in hot pursuit. Because I'd been focusing on the female at the point when she lifted off, I stayed on her and panned, rather than trying to pick up the male while he was already moving, but a female Goosander's plumage is more subtle than the male's so I was surprised and pleased to find that the autofocus had managed to lock on to her.

The Goosander is the largest of the three British sawbill species; it's a little larger than a Mallard, but quite a bit heavier, as you'd expect, because it's a diving rather than a dabbling duck. The species first bred in Scotland in 1871, but since then the breeding population has spread southwards, and breeding birds can now be found across the north of England, the north Midlands, Wales, and down into Devon. The RSPB and BTO estimate the current British breeding population at about 4,800 pairs. They prefer to nest in tree cavities when possible, and for this reason they're often found where rivers run through forests. In winter many Goosanders can be seen on lakes, reservoirs and flooded gravel pits, where they can form sociable flocks. At this time the resident population is joined by some overwintering birds from northern Europe and Russia, though this is quite a small-scale migration, and some sources suggest that it's decreasing.

There's one other fun fact about Goosanders, which no-one seems able to explain, and that is that some of our resident male birds travel to Norway at the end of the breeding season - which for them comes earlier than it does for the females, who look after their ducklings alone or in small cooperatives. The itinerant males stay in Norway through their moult (which leaves them flightless for about a month), and then fly back to the UK. The females moult at home between July and September, once their parenting duties for the year have been fulfilled.