In Thursday’s post I mentioned I captured a great shot of Grey Heron with Cormorants. Well here it is, I didn’t even notice the cormorants at first, they blended in so well with their environment! I know that might seem a bit bizarre when you look at the photograph below, but if you scroll down you will see a photograph I had taken of the bank earlier. The northern bank is a long way away when you are peering at birds.
The Riberia Odeleite is a tributary of the Ria Guadiana, and as this point of the river is less than 30km from where the Guadiana flows into Atlantic, with no waterfalls in between, it is tidal (the Guadiana is tidal up to Mértola, about 70km from the Atlantic). When I took the photograph below at the start of our hike the tide was rising, when we returned a few hours later it had turned revealing the perfect perching point for herons and cormorants alike.
The name ‘Odeleite’ is believed to originate from its Moorish name wâdî layt, meaning eloquent river. Rather appropriate name given how often it appears in this blog!
It wasn’t just herons and cormorants that caught my attention. A few yards from them there was a major boundary dispute taking place between two Common Sandpipers.
We’ve never seen sandpipers behaving like this before as usually they seem content to feed in small flocks. However apparently in the autumn / winter months it is not unknown for some birds to become extremely territorial. On this excellent Waders Blog by Graham Appleton you can read further on the winter behaviour of Green Sandpipers.
PS If my title seems a familiar to those of a certain age, in fact many ages, then you might be thinking of a TV programme. Visit Wikipedia to find out more.
I can’t count the number of times I’ve taken a photo of one thing and discovered something even better alongside that I’d otherwise have missed. One of the greatest joys of long-distance photos! Interesting sandpiper behaviour, lucky to catch it.
Fantastic, glad not just me who has these magical discoveries. As you say a great joy of a good lens!
What a great bunch
They are aren’t they 🙂
It’s a beautiful river and I can understand why you did not see the cormorants! You were focusing on what you wanted to capture !
awww thanks 😀
☺️
Great photos of the sandpiper turf war! I guess everyone just wants their own little patch. 🙂
Guess so but it was a bit of a vicious attack!
What a great shot, I can see how you missed the cormorants being focused on the heron. We spotted a heron the other day on our way to the supermarket, but driving so no photo. I don’t think I have seen cormorants down here though.
Thank you for being so understanding, I felt so daft at the time!!
I didn’t spot the cormorants at first either! The herons here have egrets as their companions. Much easier to spot!
oh someone else who is making me feel so much better for not spotting them! Egrets are so much easier 🙂
I loved Tales of the Riverbank when I was younger, although I was probably older than the children it was actually aimed at. My son liked it too and somewhere i have the first series on VHS video 🙂
I like the river photo, and if you hadn’t mentioned the cormorants in the first shot I probably wouldn’t have noticed them, they look like part of the tree branch 🙂
I’d never realised until I wrote this post just how many series they were. Wonderful it keeps coming back for new generations to discover.
Phew glad not just me on the cormorants!
What a fabulous spot. Our own just-down-the-lane river delivers herons a-plenty, but never a cormorant, though they frequent the nearby nature reserve..
They seem to be creatures of habit, once they have their fishing place that’s where they return again and again.
Btw your new mindfulness approach to walks might mean you see the elusive kingfisher on your river this year 😉
Kingfishers are mythological creatures. End of discussion.
You’re not going to cope when you do see one!!
Not there to see 🙂
Just you wait……one of these days it will fly past, and there will be a unicorn too!
🙂
And I always thought you were sane, Margaret!
I am. The rest of the world is out of step and gullible.
How arrogant can you get….
🙊