Goldeneye-Bucephala clangula

Yesterday afternoon was spent trying to get closer to a pair of Goldeneye that I had seen a few times just off the entrance to Cockwood harbour. This is a remarkably quiet area particularly at high tide and very rich in bird life. I arrived just as the tide was beginning to go out and placed my pop up hide above the water giving me good views across the bay. There was hardly a bird to be seen but pretty soon from within the hide I saw a small dot get bigger and bigger as, what turned out to be a female Goldeneye made her way towards me.

I was positioned right alongside the fresh water stream that runs into the Estuary from the inner harbour and as the day progressed I began to understand the attraction of this freah water source to the birds. In the picture I am pretty sure she is putting her head back to swallow. I took several photos of the female and was begining to understand the benefit of the hide. Without realising it the female was joined by a Drake. Please bear in mind that these ducks are truly wild, not the kind you feed on the duck pond! They are very, very wary and any sign of a human and they paddle quickly of or fly away to the middle of the estuary. I was veyr pleased to be able to get as close, some 25 yards or so because I had thought it through so carefully and hatched a plan and it is always really fulfilling if you then have success. This to me is real wildlife watching! You must admit they are very pretty and aptly named birds.

Another reason that they are attracted to the fresh water source is the opportunity to bathe and wash the salt water from their plumage. Along with other birds they were bathing and preening for quite long periods. In this photo you can see how the Drake is really getting stuck in and making sure that his belly is attended to. I really hate the thought of theses birds being shot at by duck hunters but believe it or not the Exe Wildfowlers have the right to shoot this species on the River Exe…………. can you imagine anyone getting any pleasure out of that?

A bit more about Goldeneye. They are a bird that is apparently doing quite well and breed in Scotland. They readily accept a nesting box placed appropriately high in a tree and this has led to an increase in breeding pairs. Their range in Europe extends in to the Taiga which geographically is a an area of woodland and wilderness south of the Arctic Tundra. So our Goldeneye here in Devon are either Scotish birds, or birds from further North such as Sweden, Finland and Northern Russia. At two days old the young ducklings leap from the nest high up in in a hole in a tree. They form creches with other ducklings from other nests and are cared for collectively in the creche by one “mother” duck. I should imagine that this allows the other individulas to go to nest again, but also it is probably a good strategy . There is safety in numbers in the same way that fish live in large shoals.

Joining the the party was a small group of 7 red Breasted Mergansers made up of 4 males and three females. As you can see I got quite close to them as well.

I was thrilled when suddenly from nowhere a Slavonian Grebe appeared on the scene and stayed around pretty much the whole afternoon. I don’t know if this is the same individual that was in the Estuary all last summer in Summer plumage, I think it probably is, now though he is in winter

eclipse plumage.

Then as the tide went out further the waders took centre stage. The most impressive being a nice Greenshank and I thought that this photograph would show the difference between the two species.

There are always lots of Little Egrets on and around the Exe Estuary. This one wanted to get as close to me as he could allowing me to get this really good head portrait.