Mid-September at Rye Meads

18th September 2026

I hear the water levels are still quite low so time for a visit to see what was about. As I arrived at the Draper Hide a juvenile Cormorant was doing its best to maintain its balance on a rather thin Kingfisher perch.

The resident Heron was still around.................

..................alongside its diminutive cousin the Little Egret.

While Herons can be a bit gangly in flight, Little Egrets are very elegant.

So now on to the ducks and at this time of year you can't help but notice that nearly all are brown. This is because at this time of year the males moult into what is called an eclipse plumage where they look like females. This is to help them evade predators when they become temporarily flightless during their moult. The exact timing of the eclipse transition varies from one species to another.

Teal are quite late in going into eclipse and therefore none of them are currently showing any signs yet of emerging into their male plumage.

This is a Teal having a bath........................

.....................with the compulsory wing-flap to follow.

Gadwall, on the other hand, enter eclipse early and therefore males have already regained their breeding plumage.

Shovelers are somewhere inbetween and are just starting to moult through the white breast of their breeding plumage.

These two Shovelers were swimming around in circles continuously which is called cooperative feeding. By swimming round in circles they create a vortex or inverted whirlpool which brings food items up from the bottom of the water to the surface. On larger bodies of water I have seen up to 30 Shovelers doing this, all swimming in the same direction of course.

This is one of the Little Grebe chicks, still showing remnants of the stripes on its head....................

......................and here it is begging food from its mum.

And here is a fairly unusual sight when Little Grebes go on land.. They are very ungainly on land as their legs are right at the back of their body like penguins.

Also a few territorial disputes amongst the Lapwings which provided a bit of action.

For some reason the number of Green Sandpipers today had dropped to just one compared to five on my last visit a few weeks ago, but luckily it was quite showy. Also I like the reflections.

Rather surprisingly there was still a single Common Tern left which I thought was a bit late when I was here last, and had expected it to have left the site on its long journey south. On the positive side it did give a lot of opportunites for some action shots and, as I have always said, trying to photograph Common Terns in flight is more exciting than fishing.

And yes, this is the right way up.

Here it had spotted a fish......................

........................but missed.

And finally on to the favourite stars of the show, the two Kingfishers that have taken up residence in front of the Draper Hide now the breeding season is over. Let's talk a bit about ageing and sexing Kingfishers.

The first seven photos are of an adult bird as it has orange feet, whereas juveniles have brown feet. So once established it is an adult, it is also possible to sex it. Males have all-black bills whereas females have orange on the lower mandible generally referred to as lipstick. So this bird is an adult male.

The next four photos are of a juvenile bird with brown feet. So ageing is straight forward, but sexing is more complicated and must be treated with caution. This is because when juvenile Kingfishers leave the nest they ALL have all-black bills, and it will be some time before Xmas that the females get their orange lower mandible.

Therefore a juvenile with an all-black bill could be a male, or a female that hasn't got its lipsatick yet. The exact timing of when the females get their lipstick varies depending on which month they left the nest and could typically range from September- November, so you can't reliably sex juvenile males until December.

I saw this Kingfisher dive and catch this "fish" and triumphantly take it back to its perch.

It was only when I looked at my photos more closely I could see that it had actually caught a twig with a leaf attached. I wondered at the time why it had dropped it!!!

Well, what a great way to spend an afternoon.

And also good to meet Kelly and Lorna and hope you enjoyed your birding at Rye Meads.

A Mid-September Visit to Lemsford Springs

16th September 2026

Time for another visit to Lemsford Springs, and once again the dead tree opposite the hide didn't disappoint with a superb Great Spotted Woodpecker surveying the scene.

The next bird on show was a Mandarin Duck, a bit of a surprise for me. They are recorded at Lemsford somewhat spasmodically, but I have only seen them here on a couple of occasions.

 

Today the flock of 10 or so Linnets was joined by a single Goldfinch to enjoy the shallow water for a bath and a drink.

And of course no visit to Lemsford is complete without a Grey Wagtail and today there were four birds strutting their stuff on the sleepers and inbetween the clumps of watercress.

Of course the site speciality is the Green Sandpiper which are caught and colour-ringed and sometimes satellite-tagged to track their movements. On my last visit twelve birds were present, but today just six. It is possible there were more up the side channel which is not visible from the first hide.

The resident Water Rail lives under the large Sallow opposite the hide and today kept trying to come out into the small bay under the tree but was always deterred by the numerous Moorhens present in that area.

So the best I could manage today was a sneaky shot when it was partially obscured by some Phragmites.

But the stars of the show today were the two Snipe which were feeding out in the open in front of the hide.

And when they are preening you get an opportunity to marvel at that plumage...............

......................and to see those normally hidden tail feathers.

And the two together having a well-earned rest.

Well, another relaxing afternoon at Lemsford and good to have a catch-up with Rose and Dave.

And true to form I didn't recognise SH4RPY without him standing next to his famous number plate.

Good to see you Chris.