A pre Christmas treat for local Birdwatchers!

Goosander – Bishop’s Waltham South Pond

A Goosander isn’t the rarest of birds, but it is in Bishop’s Waltham. My Postman is born and bred here and an extremely keen Birdwatcher and he’s never seen one here before!

Having only heard about it (and I should have known as I live no more than 300 meters away from the Ponds) after it had been showing for 4 days I thought I may have missed it. On day four it was raining but on the fifth day armed with Camera, off I went, low and behold it was still there. The only problem being it was mid – late afternoon and she was sleeping in a back garden which borders the pond !

Giving me a bit of a showing

That was the fifth day, but the sixth day proved to be sunny and I ventured down there a little earlier.
Needless to say, when I stood on the east side, she was on the west and when I went to the west side, she was on the east !
Bearing that in mind I decided to stay tight, stand behind a bush and wait.

A fine pose

After about 15 minutes I was looking down at my Camera and suddenly heard the flap of wings going past me. I looked up to find it had come down no more than 20 meters away. So many times this has happened, I’ve pointed the camera and clicked only to find the rear half of a bird flying away, this time I was lucky.

The North Pond packed with Ducks, this one, just the Goosander

Where she had come from and where she was going is anyone’s guess, two days later and she departed. Safe journey and find a nice male to breed with !