Thursday, November 15, 2007
Dorney Lake from the car park early on a fine frosty morning. Just me and this fox.
The second pool was frozen over, with gulls making comical attempts to walk on it. A green sandpiper was feeding on the far shore of the return lake, and two snipe were also moving along the shoreline together. A grey wagtail was feeding near the bridge.
Walking back along the causeway, I saw a snipe species fly up from the bank of the rowing lake as a runner went by. It looked small and flew fairly slowly, flicking its wings - which looked short and not markedly pointed. It turned and folded its wings, plummeting back into the tussocky cover on the waterline.
I marked the spot and continued to walk towards it, but I was not careful enough. The bird was suddenly airborne again, about a metre from my feet. It rose without a sound and flew off, landing again on the north bank of the main lake somewhere between the 750m and 1000m markers. If it was a jack snipe - and I'm almost sure it was - it was the first one I've seen in flight.
// posted by Christine @ 2:11 AM 
