Isle of Man blog

January 8th - Tromode

Last week I noticed someone had recorded Goosanders at Tromode.
So with these being very scarce on the IOM I decided that my Saturday morning would be spent going for these. Now last year there were 2 Goosanders wintering at Tromode and I noticed that they only spent overnight in the pond and would fly up river as soon as it got light. So with this knowledge I got up at 7am and drove the 10 miles to Tromode. Luckily for me I got through all the roads before the Police got up and shut the roads due to trees and power lines down! :)
I got to Tromode in the pitch black but still went and had a look and spotted the Male Goosander in the nearest corner on the pond. I decided to retreat back to the car and wait for the light to start to come up rather than go and frighten the Goosander. After about 20 minutes the light was starting to appear so I went back and the Goosander had already gone into the middle of the pond. But this time there were 3 females with it (or so I thought).
I then spent the next 2 hrs crawling round the pond trying to get in a positon where the Goosanders would swim past so I could get a photo. The best shots were in the end when I just walked along the path with the Male sleeping and then took a shot from by the side of a tree!! Slightly annoying, after I had spent alot of time and effort crawling around as not to disturb them and it looks like I didnt need to.

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At one point when I was sitting by a few trees I heard some noisy Long-tailed Tits coming through. I have learnt to always check these flocks as other birds like to join them. Straight away I spotted a bird in the tree above me that didnt have a long tail. I got the bins on it and it was a female Siskin. Thats a good bird for me, I usually have to put alot of effort into finding them.
Then another bird flew onto a tree by the side of me and started scooting up it.
A loverly Treecreeper. Unfortunately in the scramble I goofed up both pictures and also a Long-tailed tit photo even though it was only at about 5 ft range!! arhghgh.
By 9.30am I had expected the Goosanders to have flown but due to the torrents in the nearby river, I can only assume the Goosanders had decided not to risk it. I decided then to leave them alone and try and see if I could get to the nearby Kerrowdhoo Reservoir. Here I was hoping for some diving ducks and an extremely super remote chance of a Smew.
Unfortunately the road to the reservoir was closed due to fallen trees!
bahhh.
I turned for home and decided to check Derbyhaven Bay. With the winds reduced but still up at the force 8-9 I had again hoped for some Diver/Grebe action. Last year with winds like this I found Great Crested and Slavonian Grebe in the bay which are both extremely scarce visitors to the IOM.
Unfortunately though there were no Divers in the bay but I did count 9 Black Guillemots in winter plumage. Also there were 9 Eiders.
I drove round to the beach side and noticed 3 Black Guillemots extremely close in. So I got out and nearly got blown over and went for the beach.
I waited for them to dive then legged it into position. I managed a few sharp shots inbetween alot of blurred shots.

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I didnt stay too long as I kept getting blown over onto the wet sand.
Before going home I had a quick check of the Langness side (which was getting the full force of the wind) and noted a Male Shoveler in an advanced eclipse stage and 1 Knot on the Stinky Dubh. There were also the hundreds of Teal that winter here every year. After that I quickly retreated home to get dry and warm! :)

Ps. When I got home and went through my Goosander pics I noticed that one of the "females" was actually a 1st winter Male! . whoops :)