Ospreys of Arlington

 Margie and I decided on a little jaunt to Arlington Reservoir today to try and see the Ospreys that have been hanging around for a while! Talking to a couple of  guys while we were kitting up who told us the Ospreys were sitting on a couple of posts in the middle of a field, excellent, however when they had gone neither of us were sure where the field was!!! Duh!!!😂We decided to walk around to the Dam as most reports seem to come from there. Not much seen on the walk, arriving at the wall there were more birds, with Wagtails, Linnets, Pipits and Starlings on and around the Dam, loads of feral Geese on the shore and flying in, Gulls everywhere and a few Great Crested Grebes on the water. The water levels are really low. 

Canada Geese flying through, loads of these and Greylags around

Egyptian Geese  

Great Crested Grebe

Starling

Meadow Pipit

Linnets

Safely behind a fence (M)

Low water and plenty of Geese (M)

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Nearby Church (M)

Don't think I've ever seen such low water (M)

A grey old day, we were talking to another couple of Birders when all the Gulls loafing around in the middle of the reservoir took off, I scanned around and soon found an Osprey flying in, we soon spotted another, they put on a great show, making multiple attempts at fish and failing, good for us!! They stuck at it, with both eventually catching and disappearing from whence they came, a few pics below. Unfortunately despite fishing almost every other part of the water, they never came particularly close to our position and the grey weather didn't help!! Ok enough excuses the pics below!!

A fabulous display with the birds diving about the place, typically didn't get a clear shot of them entering the water 😏 Not sure either of the fish they caught will fill em up!! 

We decided to continue around the reservoir, not much in the woodland but as the view opened up we scanned the fields we found the two Ospreys sitting on fence posts! Miles away, which seems to be todays theme, but nice to see them!

With the Ospreys gone it was back to the Geese!

The only wader we saw, think it's a Ringed Plover

The Osprey's chillaxing 

Another crap shot 😂

We carried on around, still quiet though we did see a large mixed flock of Tits and Warblers, all quite distant and only confirmed sightings were Chiffchaffs, nice to see Long-tailed Tits in the mix!!

Long-tailed Tit sadly all to far away!

We carried on to complete the walk,  looking back I saw an Osprey head back out over the water, dive once, catch a fish and promptly disappear over the trees, presumably back to the posts!!

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That was that, highly enjoyable 15 minutes of full on Osprey action and a nice walk around in the improving weather.