A perfectly normal Wednesday. I had just finished an hour's practice of a rather difficult section of Bach's Partita in D Minor for Solo Violin, and my fingers were sore. It's very fiddly (no pun intended). It's my older brother's birthday, but he was out at college all day, so there wasn't much going on. The afternoon was free in theory, but I still had to take the dog out and needed to finish some more school. So when I checked Birdguides, I wasn't prepared for what I saw. The Ferruginous Duck was back at Brownwich. This is its third time in the area (I believe), and I have dipped it both times before. The last time I was there, earlier this year, I came the morning after it was found, but there was no duck to be seen. We are due to be in the area at some point soon, so I wondered whether I might be able to go and see it then. But after a bit of thinking, I decided against this. I really didn't want to risk missing it again.
Needless to say, the schoolwork was finished with great speed, the dog taken out, and a very hasty lunch eaten.
I have to make an admission. I went out "birding" on Saturday on my biggest, in terms of distance, twitch I've been on. All the way to Eastbourne in East Sussex. Over 6 hours of journeying overall. I went there for a Black Guillemot that had been there for 8 days... I really did think it would still be there. But anyway, it wasn't, and all the birds that were seen were two Great Crested Grebes. It was a bit of a dismal time, with the awful wind rubbing salt into the already painful and expensive wound. I got back rather late and had to be in Guildford for the evening, so I couldn't get a blog out on Saturday, and thought it would be a bit of a waste of a day off on Monday.
The terrible dip on Saturday was, of course, playing on my mind as I biked to the station. I really didn't want to dip yet another rare bird in the space of a week.
I arrived at the station in good time. My plan was to catch the 13:13 train and get to the pond actually at 14:30, then take a 16:00 train back to Petersfield in time for dinner. Normally, with trains, plans work well.
Today was different.
It was only after I was on the train that I learnt there were large problems on the line at Cosham- directly in my path to Swanwick.
Very long story short, I had to get off at Fareham instead of Swanwick, was forced to change at Fratton instead of Havant and was delayed by half an hour. Dozens of trains were cancelled, so all the lines were a bit chaotic.
Anyways, I arrived at Fareham station at about 14:30 and arrived at Brownwich at 15:00, with the light already starting to fade.
As I biked up the path to the pond itself, I saw that two of my birding friends who live in the area were already on site. It had been with them that I had come to this exact place about 10 months ago in search of the very bird I was back here again for. I nervously peddled over to them. "Is it gone?" I asked, fully expecting the news that it had again departed before I laid my eyes on it.
"Nope, it's still here." Came the reply.
I got off my bike, put my rucksack heavily on the ground and scrambled to get my camera and binoculars out. After a few seconds that seemed to go on for ages, I took a look out at the Tufted Ducks behind a tree. And there, finally, was the Ferruginous Duck.
It was obscured by a tree; we were peering through some bushes at it. The lighting was awful and getting worse. But did I really care? No. I'd finally seen the bird. And what a beauty it was. The bright eye really stood out. We moved to another bit a bit further away to see it clearer. I got some OK-ish shots.
An Egyptian Goose was in very good lighting, not too far away from the "Fudge" Duck.
We hoped that the duck would move closer and into better lighting, but unfortunately, it never did.
Ferruginous Ducks are found mainly in Southern Europe and are rare vagrants to the UK. About 10-15 birds are seen a year, but this number is largely inflated due to escapes from collections. This one is unringed, fully winged and has shown all the hallmarks of being a wild bird. The fact that it has returned now for three years running is also a good sign.
I was, and I think this is the best word to describe it, elated. Seeing a bird is always so much more satisfying when you've put many hours into it. Although it is so frustrating at the time, in the end, it is so much more fulfilling. A brilliant lifer that compensates for the dip on Saturday. British Year List up to 204, and life list at 211. Incredible.
Only now and again was the bird visible at decent range, but when it was, the views were brilliant, although the lighting was awful.
It wasn't ever diving, but preened often.
We walked around a bit in vain trying to find another place to photograph the duck, but a lovely sunset was seen, and a huge flock of pigeons, gulls and Egyptian Geese flew up from a field.
By now, it had become apparent that the situation with the trains had gotten no better. Quite the opposite. When I checked, it looked as though all of them were cancelled. All of them. Ouch. From both Swanwick and Fareham, nothing seemed to be running towards Portsmouth or from there up to Petersfield. After a few minutes of rather pointless messages that didn't really get us anywhere in arranging how to get home, I decided to just enjoy the bird and freestyle my way home.
It was out again in the open, but by now the light was practically gone.
After another twenty minutes or so, I checked Trainline again and saw that while nearly everything was cancelled, there was one train running that would get me back before dinner, from Swanwick at 16:38. It was about 15:40, so I decided to leave at about 16:10 to get to the station in good time.
The duck had disappeared, but before long was out again. I got some final photographs before we all came to an agreement that, as the bird started swimming into the reeds, there was no point staying any further, and we walked back along the path to the car park.
By the time I left the car park, it was 14:15. I checked the route to Swanwick Station and was gobsmacked to see that my ETA was exactly one, yes one minute before my train got in. I sped off. Halfway down the road, I wondered how long it would take to get to Fareham and was relieved to see that I would be in time for the train if I went to Fareham. I got home without too many complications, but still missed a few connections due to late trains and tried to catch trains that didn't exist. It was, as I previously said, chaos.
I'm sitting here on my bed, bleary-eyed and in need of sleep, thrilled with the day's happenings. I had kind of forgotten the possibility of this returning this year, so it was such a great surprise when it was reported. Another vagrant for 2025, and my first lifer of December, which has started off much slower than I was expecting. The Goldeneye, a week ago today, were absolutely brilliant though. Life is a bit manic at the moment, but hopefully I will have more time to go out once it's the holidays. I am hoping to do a Selsey Peninsula big day at some point with a bus pass to get around, but not much is going on there currently, other than hundreds of bananas on the beach, so I am waiting for things to start turning up. Hopefully soon. Anyway, good night.
Many thanks to the finder, as always:)
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