Yesterday morning I had another chance to add Ring Ouzel to the 5MR
list, as Mark Andrews found another at the same area on Aylestone Meadows as
the weekend bird. Seeing it was another matter, as just like the first it was
quick to scuttle out of view and become lost in the scrub further back. But I
did get views, not the best but good enough. You think the record shots from a
couple of posts ago were shocking, what about this ....
Look at that full crop grainyness, but at least you can see it's a Blackbird
with a white bib! Singing Cetti's and Sedge Warblers were good to
pick up whilst there too. Whilst I'm at it, here's a couple of more obliging but
less interesting grey birds from the site ....
Shortly afterwards I headed up to Kinchley Lane, Swithland Res to meet up with
Adrian Russell and show him a couple of the recent larval finds that he'd not
seen as yet. We soon found a few mines of Elachista regificella, and an
obligatory wall search produced a few bits ....
Taleporia tubulosa
Luffia lapidella f. ferchaultella
One of the whites. Probably.
It was a bit parky, overcast and didn't look like the sun would break through.
We next headed to the site for Infurcitinea argentimaculella, and then
on to Charnwood Lodge where we had a damned good but unsuccessful search for
Dahlica inconspicuella. Whilst there, I managed to grab a couple of
shots of a very active jumping spider, which looks absolutely right and fits
the habitat for Pseudeuophrys erratica and gained some confirmatory
comments on a British Spiders facebook group ....
Back at home, a couple of vegetative bits of note. We have a large flowering
cherry on the front garden, with big blousy pink blossom. It's been here since
the house was built before we moved in. It's grown pretty big over the years,
and we had to have it cut back a bit in 2019, but I'd never noticed anything
odd about the tree before. It throws up a lot of suckers from a couple of big
exposed roots, which I usually trim back at some point, but this year
something odd has sprouted ....
Here's the pink blossom that is just coming up to it's best all over the
tree now ....
And here's a bit of blossom that has appeared from a root sucker ....
It is clearly a cultivated specimen grafted onto some sort of wild cherry
root stock, but I honestly can't say that that has ever been evident before.
There was no sign of grafting on the young tree, although we moved here in
1994 so it's a long while to think back.
Also, remember back in January when I was convinced that there was no
Holly in the square, just before finding a bit. Well I found this sprouting
the garden at the weekend!
We've never grown any Holly in the garden and none of the neighbours have any
that I can see. This is right under the line where a bird could sit on the
fence and drop a dump of undigested seed.
This evening I've been out for a walk along the lane wielding my sweep net.
I had two particular species in mind, Brassica Shieldbug which I missed and
Woundwort Shieldbug which I found. Eventually, after sweeping loads
of White Dead-nettle. Pied Shieldbugs were much more numerous!
I've also ended up with a good range of Hemiptera and Coleoptera in pots to
have a good look at and increase the square list a bit more.
Okay, a couple of days late for one reason or another.
Saturday was bright sunshine with warmth right from the off. I decided to head
down the lane with bins and camera - maybe something new in the hedgerows or
skies.
There was, albeit brief and silent - a Whitethroat skulking in the hedgerow
and quite likely fresh in and a bit knackered. Yellowhammers and Skylarks were
more evident though ....
Also along the lane, this intensively reared chicken was unphased by an
approaching human or passing cars.
Whilst out, I picked up a Tweet from Neil Hagley - a proper birder who lives on
the same estate but further over with better all-round aerial views from his garden and slightly
less motorway noise. He is far more likely to be out and about earlier in the
morning than me, and he'd picked up both Wheatear and Yellow Wagtail. I mis-read
the Tweet though and thought he meant he'd had them along the lane, which seemed
unlikely for Wheatear at least given the fields are all sprouting with
Autumn-sown crops - no nice bare ploughed fields or short grassy/weedy pasture.
I checked in with Neil, turns out he meant he'd walked down the lane and carried
on across the main A426 onto Whetstone Gorse Lane and past the PYO. Which was
good, as it meant my birding skills were not completely rubbish. By the time I
had that bit of news I'd already enjoyed Ravens flying over, along with several
Buzzards and Red Kite filling the sky and a pair of Swallows milling about
around the farm, and I'd headed back home.
But the enjoyable walk kind of made my mind up for what I might do for the
rest of the day - which was get back out with bins and avoid that televised
funeral! I grabbed something to eat, made up a coffee to take out and a couple
of bits of fruit. First off I headed back down to the PYO - I expected the
Wheatear to still be present, doubted the wagtail would be. I was right.
Quite possibly the worst Wheatear record shot I've ever taken - distance
wasn't the problem, it was the heat-haze rising up from the bare soil. It was
turning out to be quite a sun blast out there. Sadly this one is not in the
square, but of course is in the 5MR.
I then headed out to Barlestone, outside of the 5MR, but home to a trio of
Ring Ouzels for a couple of days. I've seen several Ring Ouzels in the county
over the years, and none have been particularly photographic when I've seen
them. These were no different - loitering right on the edge of a sheep field,
and watchable from the next sheep field only.
The two red arrows mark the rough position and range of two birds fairly close
together on the left, and a single bird on the right. When they first turned up,
they were on the almost adjacent football pitch giving some cracking views.
Apparently! This time distance and the heat really did make for some shocking
record shots. All appeared to be male, but I can't rule out a well-marked female
for the out-of-range more distance one (bins only, can't be arsed lugging a
scope around these days).
Other thrushes in the field were more obliging.
After that I headed back towards home and checked in to the balancing pool at
Grove Park and a quick walk around Jubilee Park on the patch. But nothing new
or exciting at either. The pool at Jubilee Park seems to be dropping in volume
very quickly. Still a handful of Wigeon loitering there but not a lot else.
Seeing how low the river is now and walking around the once flooded but now
parched grassy areas reminded me that it really it a fair while now since we
had any rain. We've had mild and sometimes warm sunny days, very clear cold
nights, but it's been bone dry.
In other bird news from Saturday, we were awoken by an almighty clucking from
a pair of Blackbirds loudly proclaiming their agitation. Had no idea what was
going on, but when I was home after the first walk down the lane, we realised there was a pathetic fledgling in
the garden which was barely able to get more than a couple of feet off of the
ground. It was almost like it had fledged too early; usually the first
fledglings I see in the garden have full tails and are almost bigger
(certainly fatter) than the parents - this was slightly smaller than the
adults and lacking much of a tail. It can't have flown into the garden, and I
surmised that it had launched itself from the nearest bramble on the
embankment onto the neighbours shed roof, and from there either flopped into
our garden or over to our shed roof before dropping in.
It wasn't happy, but at least the parents were feeding it regularly. But I
knew that it would not survive - if not from ours or another local cat (it may
as well have had a Nestle Purina logo on its crown) it was going to be another
cold night. Later in the afternoon I decided enough was enough and it needed some sort of rescue plan, but it wouldn't let me get anywhere near it to give it a hand up.
Eventually it was sat on the edge of a plant pot at the back of the shed, and
with some other junk I've got behind there including a pallet, I tried to make
a series of steps that it might be able to get up high enough to get back onto the shed roof and jump back into cover. I had no expectations that it would,
but after leaving it for half an hour I noticed the parents were not coming
onto our fence anymore. A quick check and there was no sign of the fledgling; either my
half-baked plan had worked or perhaps it had just hopped through the hedgehog
hole at the bottom of the fence line. I checked again after an hour and,
amazingly, quite close to the neighbours shed sat a very familiar looking
brown blob on the edge of the bramble. A happy ending
perhaps ....
Except that yesterday there was very little noise coming from the embankment,
not as much calling and squeaking as you might expect. Cut to this morning,
and just whilst I made a cuppa the adult pair were making the same raucous
agitated racket again. I nipped into the garden just in time to see a Magpie
fly out of the scrub with a brown feathery blob dangling from its beak. I
knew they would predate nests, but I always assumed it was much younger naked
chicks that they'd be after. It must have taken some effort to fly off with
this sized breakfast. I'm assuming that on Saturday it raided the nest causing
the remaining chicks that were not quite ready to fledge to scatter. Likely that the
Magpie has been coming back and searching them out ever since. Still that's
life (or death) but at least it's early enough for another brood in perhaps a
better nest location.
Sunday was a little more overcast though still with some good sunny spells. But it was a day of sport for me, with the F1 and FA Cup sandwiching a return trip to
Croft Pasture with the suction sampler - which I'll cover separately.
Today was, perhaps, my last chemo session - the drug I have on IV is very
neurotoxic and some of the side-effects are now lingering beyond the cycle so
it is likely to be knocked on the head after this one. They'd already dropped
the dose to 75% . Overall since the dose dropped, the side-effects are less
intense and more bearable, but they shouldn't be lasting like they are. I can
feel my finger tips tingling as I type and there is a chance this will be long-lasting or even permanent.
I was determined to get out though whilst I feel okay as it was an absolutely lovely warm early evening with clear skies and more sun. Whilst I was either preoccupied yesterday or
incapacitated this morning, there had been another Ring Ouzel but this one was
at a regular but difficult to watch area generally referred to as King's Lock
Paddocks on Aylestone Meadows - just outside the patch boundary but within the
5MR. Despite giving the scrubby field and adjacent fields a good grilling for
a couple of hours I had no joy - but given that Ring Ouzels generally migrate
at night, and it was there this morning, it is possibly that it was still
around and just elusive with the extensive scrub and viewing from across the
canal. Still, it was very refreshing to be out - even if the inside of my
nostrils did start to tingle thanks to the chemo.
I managed to head out for a bit of a walk this afternoon after a GP Surgery
appointment, and I decided I'd head up to the northern stretch of Aylestone
Meadows within my 5MR. One thing I realised quite a while ago is that I should
have made an effort to sort out some sort of route-tracking app. on my phone
that would trace my steps and calc. the distances this year during my square
and 5MR walks. I remember this every time I'm out, when it's too late to
bother, and I guess there's not much point starting now. Today's walk was only
c2.5miles in any case.
Here's an aerial map showing the route:
The red dot is the starting point at the car park; I followed the River
Soar/Grand Union Canal along the cyan dots up to the King Power stadium;
retraced my steps to the green dots following the River Biam and a boardwalk
pathway, then back to the car park along the yellow dots.
I had my bins and camera, and set out in what were mainly bright and sunny
conditions albeit still very cold. By the time I turned my back on the KP and
headed back it was clouding over, and by the time I was on the yellow dots it
had just started snowing again. We've had snow flurries every day since Sunday
night, albeit mainly light.
The first stretch followed the tow path along the converged River Soar/Grand
Union Canal. As you'd expect from an inner-city waterway, there are more
graffiti-laden buildings, bridges and locks than scenic views ....
The melt evident on this bridge may be short-lived given the forecast -5C
tonight!
Before long the glorious vista that is the KP came into view opposite Freemens
Meadow Lock and the weir.
Up until this point, the bird interest was limited to say the least. Nothing
but the odd Mallard, Moorhen and Mute Swan along the canal, and no sniff of a
dashing iridescent blue streak. But, just whilst I was fannying about between
phone and camera, a Raven was briefly in view soaring over the KP, the
first new 5MR bird of the day. A quick scan on the water below the weir
revealed another couple of yearticks, 15 Teal and 5
Little Grebes - albeit requiring full zoom on the camera.
A fourth year tick was a bit nearer, though perhaps less photogenic in the
great scheme of things ....
I was a little bemused at the antics of one of the Moorhens, which was
hopping along a row of large orange buoys that act as some sort of barrier in
front of the weir - a bit like that shite TV programme Ninja Warrior. It only
stopped hopping when it got to what must have been a particularly appealing
pile of gull shite to peck at ....
I also felt obliged to point the camera at these majestic beasts, clearly a
cold-weather movement from the fields of East Anglia ....
The walk back was a little precarious in places, as the rivers had clearly
flooded big sections of the meadows previously, but there is a long stretch of
boardwalk that made for better walking once on it. The scenery was better on
this route, but with the cloud cover increasing and snow starting to fall
there was not much chance of adding anything else new.
When I got back to the car park, one of the clumps of Mistletoe (actually not
that common in Leics. but there is a fair bit here) showed expected movement.
During the time I've been constructing this image-heavy post, the delivery man
has brought the TG-6 I ordered on Monday. I've got plenty of time to not read
the manual (I've never read any camera manual), plug it in and see what's what
before I'll have a chance to poke it in front of some small invert or other.
Tonight though, fittingly given the walk today, I'll be watching LCFC
(hopefully) making their way to the FA Cup quarter finals. I can't believe
that it is almost a year since I last sat in my seat at the KP (Man City,
22/02/2020). I did not go to the last home game where fans were present, Aston
Villa on 09/03/2020 - it was a Monday night, I'd been busy and the writing was
on the wall about impending closures and lockdowns - I just didn't fancy it
and watched at home. Since then I've seen more LCFC games on TV than would
normally be feasible as every game home and away has been televised. Whilst I
want my team to succeed, in a weird way I will be massively disappointed if we
were to win the FA Cup (the only top level domestic trophy LCFC have never
won) in a season when no fans can experience and enjoy the spectacle.
The canals and the bridges, the embankments and cuts
They blasted and dug with their sweat and their guts
They never drank water but whiskey by pints
And the shanty towns rang with their songs and their fights
