Remember that
Tufted Duck with a nasal saddle
that I saw in January? Well as it happens it has been seem again on 28/04/2022
at Lock of Skene near to Aberdeen, just over 500km away ....
I've been dangling a pheromone lure again, and ended up with x1 Pammene sp. in
the garden on 30/04/2022 and x3 together at Croft Hill yesterday, all to the MOL
lure. The latter were in an area predominantly full of oaks and with no ash in
the immediate vicinity raising hope that they may be something different, but
having looked at the hindwings of a couple I think they are all Pammene
suspectana - gen det will confirm, and potentially from thereon one to ID on
external characters.
As far as I can make out both P. suspectana and P. albuginana, which are
similar externally, share the dark blackened costal streak to the hindwing,
but otherwise the hindwing of P. suspectana is more uniformly grey and P.
albuginana has a paler central area making the costal streak stand out even
more.
P. suspectana allegedly feeds under the bark of ash, but it appears that is a theory and is not actually verified/proven or at least may not be the whole story.
A quick update on that red-nosed duck from yesterday ....
I got a response late yesterday evening from the Portuguese scheme organiser.
Red BE was ringed as a juvenile male on 11/11/2016 at a site on the west coast
of Portugal - the Sao Jacinto Dunes Nature Reserve. On Google Maps it looks
like a marshy wetland site just inland of coastal dunes:
And for context, as the juvenile Tufted Duck flies, that is c1453km / 903miles
from Watermead CP in Leics.
Having been ringed and saddled, it remained in the same area until 22/12/2016.
Amazingly, all subsequent sightings have been from just two sites - Watermead
CP and Draycote Water in neighbouring Warks:
30/12/2017 Watermead CP
09/09/2018 Watermead CP
04/10/2018 Draycote Water
09/10/2018 Draycote Water
08/03/2020 Watermead CP
23/08/2020 Watermead CP
20/09/2020 Watermead CP
01/10/2020 Draycote Water
06/10/2020 Draycote Water
25/07/2021 Watermead CP
16/09/2021 Draycote Water
03/01/2022 Watermead CP
Where was it in 2019? Wonder where it goes during the spring/early summer?
Does it just go to Draycote Water to moult?
What is clear is that it has carried that plastic nasal saddle around with
it for just over five years, so they can't make that much difference. It also has a weird preference for inland lakes in the English midlands versus the coastal dunes of Portugal.
Today in a bit of role reversal, Nichola was working this morning whilst I
enjoyed a day off of work before going back tomorrow. We'd planned to
de-clutter the house of the Christmas trimmings in the afternoon when Nichola
had finished, so before that I decided to head out and enjoy some fresh air
and the hazy sunshine, and look at some common birds. I headed to Watermead
CP South as I often do early in the year when a have a bit of birding
enthusiasm.
I like Watermead, despite it being a busy site with people throwing bread,
cycling, jogging and dog showing (I'd say walking, but a lot of the dogs seem
to be big hulking 'status symbols' - the status generally being wanker). There
is still enough space to enjoy a bit of peace, and the birding is generally
easy these days. I started birding at this site c30 years ago long before it
was as developed and accessible as it is now, when it was barely recovering
from being a derelict gravel working site. There was no car park, no big
tarmac path and virtually no one else there. There was also a lot less
vegetation. Like all such sites, over time things change; new birds arrive,
birding scenes change. I often used to see Redshank here in breeding displays,
rarely successful but at least they were there along with drumming Snipe. Now
I'm far more likely to hear a Cetti's. Like any such site, it occasionally
throws up something more notable; past rarities that I've seen there have
included Marsh Warbler in 1996 and White-winged Black Tern 1994, but it's been
a while now since a proper rarity turned up there.
Anyway, today was no exception - nothing unexpected, but enough to look at if
you lift your bins further than the raft of bread-crazed wildfowl and gulls.
Today for example, there was an Oystercatcher and a handful of Lapwings on the
island far from the crowd. A Grey Wagtail quietly flitted along a quiet
stretch of shoreline, and there were Wigeon and Gadwall acting perfectly
normally on the quieter 'Nature Lake'. But on the main lake, where masses of
people come to feed the duckies, it was chaotic and not just with the usual
suspects.
Amongst the Mallards, Mute Swans, Coots, Canada and Greylag Geese, a Pochard
was milling about. Not out in the deeper water away from the disturbance. Also
a handful of Tufted Ducks and a pair of Red-crested Pochards in amongst this
throng.
Despite appearances, all of these ducks (that I zoomed in too much on and lost
all sense of perspective) were capable of swimming around in more than one
direction.
There were masses of gulls around today too; I looked out for colour rings on
the Black-headed Gulls but they were all naked. The only interesting leg I saw
on those was one literally hanging by a thread and dangling about as the gull
flew over.
This yawning Common Gull was far too tired and laid back to be bothered with
chasing after bread.
This Black-headed Gull was far to greedy and oafish to let go of a
chunk of bread that was too big to swallow.
Whilst I was watching this lot, Dave Gray popped up. We had a quick chat, and
Dave mentioned that there had been a Tufted Duck recently with a nasal saddle.
About five minutes later it came around the corner and joined the crowd. I
can't remember seeing a nasal saddled duck before; it seemed to be okay though
I can't imagine a clip through your nostrils being very comfortable. The
saddle looked more red in the shadows, and orange in bright light. I think it
is from a Portuguese scheme - details awaited:
Red 'BE'
Just as we parted, Dave thought he could see a colour ringed immature gull
over on the island. Neither of us had scopes, but I walked around to be as
close a possible (c150 meters away) and grabbed a full zoom shot ....
The bird was preening, but the colour rings on the right leg looked orange
and appeared to be 'F=F' - I haven't seen that type of code previously. I
wasn't sure of the ID; I'd thought Herring Gull but doubted myself when I
couldn't find a scheme that seemed to match - but there was a scheme with
similar coding for Lesser Black-backed Gull. Anyway I contacted the scheme
organiser and got a very rapid response: female Herring Gull, ringed as a
nestling in Gloucester on 29/06/2021 and with one previous sighting at
Shawell Lagoons (also in Leicestershire) on 31/12/2021 - probably by our
County Recorder Carl Baggott.
First an update on the colour-ringed Black-headed Gull from yesterday -
White 7MS. I got the recovery data through early this morning, very
quick and efficient! It was ringed as a 3+ year old male on 31/03/2018 close
to Copenhagen (København). There have been three sightings of it since then
prior to mine, all also near to Copenhagen, so my sighting it the first time
it's been reported outside of the Copenhagen area / in the UK. On the
following map, the eastern blue dot is Svanemøllebugten somewhere near
to where it was ringed, and the western blue dot is Utterslev Mose where
it has been subsequently reported. [I've also marked the FC København Parken
Stadium with a red dot, where I watched LCFC in the Champions League on
02/11/2016. Because I can.]
The only bit of the above that seems to not make sense are the co-ordinates
which I can't make head or arseholes of. They don't seem to match the site
names, certainly not for WCPS - assuming they are meant to be
latitude/longitude. Either way, it appears that in a straight line the gull has moved c588
miles from where it was last reported.
FC København. It was bloody freezing and, disappointingly, their fans did not
get the pyros out.
On to today. There is very little permanent open water on my patch, and what
there is is not much to speak of either. There is a smallish pit that is just
about viewable from Jubilee Park (red arrow pointing at it), the other pits
that appear on the map just east of it are not really viewable, maybe partial
views from the canal tow path to the north. The other water is a reasonably
sized balancing pool at Grove Park (red dot). It is enclosed by industrial
units on three sides, but does attract a bit of common wildfowl when not
frozen over. I decided to try and add a duck or two to the 5MR list, and more
likely add Little Egret to the patch yearlist.
First off I headed to Jubilee Park, where I immediately noted x5
Little Egrets poking around on the grassy area immediately by the
entrance.
The park was still very wet and muddy from the big floods prior to the big
freeze, and the River Soar was still quite high. So still no Kingfisher. The
pool was actually bigger than I remember it, presumably holding a fair bit of
additional water from the flooding. Here it is just about in view across the
River Soar and a bit of cow field.
There were ducks on it, albeit very few with c20 Wigeon and a handful of
Mallards sitting on the bank. The only duck actually swimming about was a patch
and 5MR yeartick ....
I wasn't expecting Tufted Duck here. A Coot and a
Kestrel were also patch yearticks, and there was a good gathering of c50
Black-headed Gulls but all far too distant to bother trying to look at their
legs. I walked the whole park, but it was pretty quiet and not a lot moving
about.
I then carried on up to Grove Park for a look at the balancing pool. There
were lots of ducks and geese on show there ....
You can perhaps just make out the c150 Canada Geese on the far side, and lots
of floating blobs in front and around the small willow tree island. After the
surprise Tufted Duck at Jubilee Park, six of them here were more expected. But
the remainder of the blobs were another c100 Wigeon and c20 Mallards. Another
Coot, a few Moorhens, five Cormorants and a patch yearlist tick
Grey Heron were also around. But no Gadwall, no Shoveler, no Pochard.
Never mind - I'll have another look here in a few days.
Afterwards I headed down the lane with purpose. Having found the Ash key fungi
yesterday, I was intent on finding
them closer to home. I also wanted to have a look at that Holly again now
there has been a reprieve on the mining fly, and the Ash fungi reminded me to
look for Holly Speckle too. I scored on all fronts ....
Phytomyza ilicis on live leaf, Trochila ilicina [Holly Speckle]
on dead leaf
We have lots of Ash near here, but as I found today the trees down the lane
seem to have lots of bunches of keys that are out of reach. I literally could
only reach one, and immediately found both species - they must be very common
I reckon.
Also down the lane, a regular patch of adventive Snowdrops (that have
been growing and spreading here for well over a decade) was in bloom. Here's
one of several clumps.
I got a moth trap working, and it's out tonight though I have low
expectations. After the deep freeze last week I think it will take a few days
of warmer conditions to coax a few early spring species out.
I couldn't think of any witty or tenuous musical links .... here's 5:25mins of
aural bliss.
.... and a certainly do not mean the Urban Dictionary variety.
Today for the first time since last Wednesday I manage to get out for a bit.
My sensitivity to cold due to the chemo was tested enough on Wednesday, but
from Thursday onwards we had absolutely baltic conditions - no more snow and
generally dry but with a biting wind. In fact on Saturday the outside temp was
only -2C during the early afternoon. The other thing I found on Wednesday is
that my boots were still pretty wet after several outings in rain, snow and
ice. They were starting go a bit mouldy. The problem is just down to being
left wet in a box in the car, which itself is sitting on the driveway unused for far
more than would usually be the case. I remembered this on Friday and got
them inside to dry out properly, and then gave them a liberal spraying with
some waterproofing spray. They were bone dry on the inside and I'm sure they
will last another couple of years of abuse. I usually buy a new pair every
four years ish - and against best advice I usually opt for a cheapish
pair of Karrimor or similar from Sports Direct, with leather uppers and the
usual mix of man-made layers that give them waterproofing but breathable
characteristics. All fine if you look after them. Which I don't.
Anyway I've digressed. This afternoon I had to nip to the GP, and from there I
went over to see my Mum. She lives almost diametrically opposite to us on the
other side of the City. To get there, avoiding the city itself, there is an
outer ring road. Essentially it doesn't matter which way I go, it takes about
the same time and distance. So on the way home I went anti-clockwise which
meant that I would literally pass Watermead CP South - a handy place to stop
for a walk with bins and camera, albeit outside the 5MR etc. By then the
temperature was a balmy 12C, a massive swing from Saturday.
For someone that is not particularly a fan of gulls, I seem to spend enough
time looking at them when I'm anywhere with them about. Today I was hoping to
clock an Iceland Gull that has been dropping in there occasionally - no luck
on that front. But bugger me, I did re-find that blasted hybrid.
There were plenty of gulls about, the vast majority being Black-headed. I was
surprised to see that a small section of the lake was still a small iceberg.
This icy platform actually moved away from where I first saw it and drifted
further into the middle once gulls were landing and moving about on it.
There is no one spot that is worth watching out for a gull roost at this site,
they end up being spread over two lakes, the main one has an island in the
middle of it with gulls all around it (and on it), and the smaller lake is not
really watchable that late in the afternoon with the sun in your face - although
I tried. Added to that, the continual stream of people with bags of seed and
bread means the smaller gulls are in a constant state of greedy agitation.
Still, with a bit of ice on the water I turned my attention to looking out for
an colour-ringed birds and scored ....
White 7MS - Danish
I've sent off the sighting details, hopefully I'll get something back with the
bird's movements.
Regular visitors to this blog over the years will know of my disdain for
hybrid/domesticated/naturalised wildfowl. Look at the state of this; if we
could just get posh twats to stop releasing Pheasants and Red-legged
Partridges, stop mis-managing grouse moors and start targeting these ....
Proper wildfowl (and that is stretching it given the bread-crazed nature of a
lot of them) were few and far between: a pair of Goosander, a handful of
Wigeon and Gadwall on the smaller lake, no Shoveler or Pochard. I wonder how
far wildfowl got pushed out with the freeze.
Whilst walking around, I casually looked at some Ash keys following a post on
Facebook today. I was half-heartedly looking for the feeding signs of
Pseudargyrotoza conwagana, but inadvertently stumbled on a micro-fungi that is
not dissimilar to Holly Speckle. I brought a couple home ....
It didn't take long to search bioinfo.org and come up with a name for this -
Diaporthe samaricola. A further search then showed a two-for one - the smaller black speckles on the 'wing' are Neosetophoma samarorum.
With the temps up, and overnight temps looking unseasonally mild, I had
intended to get a light trap running. Only to find that neither trap I
currently have at home is working for one reason or another - a job for
tomorrow as the forecast for the next week and beyond promises some daft-for-Febrary temperatures.
Here's some 80s synth-pop cheese - I liked their singles, and always felt queasy
when I saw his shite haircut. Of course back then I didn't give too hoots
about the usage of 'Seagulls' ....
Had to head up to Yorks on business today, and took the opportunity to nip into WCPS on the way back late afternoon. Ostensibly I was looking for CR gulls, but I was happy to stand and point the camera at the confiding naked ensemble and some common round Rallidae.
In fact the only CR gull I saw was the ever-present JAN4, which has developed a BO complex
The forecast heavy snow has scuppered part of my weekend plans, as I've had to postpone the much anticipated Pushing the Boundaries talk by Martin Garner and Tormod Amundsen at Rutland Water. I'm still heading down south to the Eurotunnel though for a quick weekend soiree in France with work colleagues - which ensures that my Foot It total will remain static.
