Wednesday 15 February 2012

ABBEY MEAD SMEW

I paid a flying visit to Abbey Mead lake late this afternoon in the hope that the drake Smew which had so far eluded me was still around. It was, so were the three red-heads which I had seen earlier in the week on Brooklands lake.

They were of course on the mostly inaccessible west side of the lake, so I thought i'd sneak round a bit closer for a better view. Before I did, all four of the birds took to the air resulting in the hasty shot above. Luckily they came back down in the SE corner, I made my way cautiously along the southern edge and emerged from the wood quite close to them. The trouble was that by then the sun had broken through the clouds on the wrong side of the birds and there was also a thick reedbed between us which stopped me from focusing on the birds. That's all the excuses I can give for the awful picture below, or at least they are the ones I haven't used too much recently!



I was only down the lakes for about an hour before it started to get a bit dark, but I did note a Goldeneye on Brooklands, a flock of about 20 Fieldfares over and a Kingfisher across Abbey Mead.

Not very much 'but I only had eyes for Smew' as the song goes, or something like that!


8 comments:

Paul said...

Nice one Phil, and you always retain a sense of humour on your blog, cheers Paul.

Warren Baker said...

Anymore awful jokes like that Phil and i'll delete you from my blog list :-) :-)

seriously, 4 Smew is a cracking good record, I'd be jumping up and down with that!

Mike Attwood said...

Well done Phil.
On the joke. No comment.

Adam said...

Ahhh, very corny. Glad to caught up with the latest influx.

Adam

Alan Pavey said...

Oh Dear!! :-) Glad you got the drake Phil.

Mike H said...

Some nice sites down at the lakes today Phil. Keep working on the comedy routine!!!

Greenie said...

Phil ,
Nice one with the four Smew , it must be many years for a sighting like that . Thought you had an even bigger surprise though , as a Philip Sharp reported a 2W White Tailed Sea Eagle in E.Kent according to KOS .
Re. the intended humour , I'd leave it at 'or something like that' .

ShySongbird said...

Well done on seeing the four Smew and on getting photos Phil.

Am I the only one to wonder if the reference to a flying visit right under the first photo was intentional, surely Mr Phil (very, very) Sharp didn't miss that one ;-)