Saddle Up

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.

The 3 'F's [Frost, Forgotten, Fascists]

This morning I had a couple of medical appointments, with the first being early at the local GP surgery. It took a good few minutes to get the car cleared of a decent overnight frost. Afterwards, I opted to head home via the back way and grab a couple of frosty shots in the square ..

As it happened, I need not of bothered as the sub-zero temperature, frost and fog lingered fully through the day. The garden feeders were busy throughout the day, but not with anything new or unexpected.

The Goldfinches create a lot of spillage and mess ...

The Squirrels tidy up the mess. And then bury it in plant pots.

By the time I'd cleared my metaphoric desk and could think about having a walk out, it was already late afternoon but the conditions were not really conducive to anything detailed.

Overnight frost in the late afternoon

I had thought about grabbing some photos and samples of various mosses, but given that everything was liberally frosted over I didn't bother with that. Instead I got properly togged up to keep warm, and just headed out for a walk with my bins.

The fields have hosted a decent-sized loose flock of Fieldfare and Redwing over the last week and they remained resolutely hopping about in the white grass. I did hear a couple of Fieldfare today over the embankment by my house, but overall both of these are garden rarities (aside from nocturnal flyover migrating Redwings). The only addition to the square list today though was a Meadow Pipit calling as it flew over my head - still waiting for the usual Skylarks to do the same.

I headed back up the lane at around the same time as yesterday, albeit after a much shorter duration out. The following shots were taken almost exactly 24hours apart. I always look at this structure and the scrubby area around it and expect to see a Little Owl - but as yet I never have. This is well within the square, but sadly not accessible without trespassing.

This is not a greyscale photo ...

Whilst grabbing Squirrel and Goldfinch shots off of my SD card, I remembered that I had some other shots on there that I never got around to sharing. They're from Watermead CP South on 27/12/2020 - but got forgotten about in the aftermath of that hybrid Glaucous x Herring Gull.

Lesser Black-backed Gull

Herring Gull

Black-headed Gull

Mallard

Coot

Canada Goose

Meanwhile, in much more serious matters, the orange fuckwit over the pond mobilised his far-right militia in yet another outlandish attempt to delay/overturn the  Presidential vote. The chaotic scenes - and deaths - that followed have to be owned by him, and yet he continues to deflect and down-play what happened. He is so far detached from democracy it is unreal, and his apologists and defenders are no better. And it will happen here too if more people don't wake up to the insidious creep of fascism. Just be thankful that our lobotomised Neanderthals are not legally armed like theirs.

This track is 40 years old. And sadly this is still relevant.

Have you heard it on the news?

About this fascist groove thang?

Evil men with racist views

Spreading all across the land

Don't just sit there on your ass

Unlock that funky chain-dance

Brothers, sisters shoot your best

We don't need this fascist groove thang

Seaside Birds and Sheepy Beer

Whilst in Ilfracombe on Friday having a nice walkaround in some sunshine, I grabbed a few shots of seaside birds. Common ones that I could point the camera at.

This Rock Pipit was tucked up on the quay having a good preen after bathing somewhere. I tried to grab a few shots but it was moving to fast .... so most were like this:

This one came out okay apart from it happened to be when its head fell off.

So I tried a bit of vid instead ...

... and got this shot when it finished pfaffing about.

Loads of gulls about, all Herring like this fine specimen ..

I noted this odd 'pair' in the harbour, lots of parallel swimming and walking with alternate calls and bill dipping - looked like courting behaviour but the female is clearly not adult and presumably not ready for breeding?

Yesterday, we had a family day out with all the kids at one of the local ex-farm turned into an attraction places - The Big Sheep. Apart from keeping the kids entertained, the best bit for me was enjoying some of the beers brewed on site by the Country Life Brewery. The Black Boar porter was especially nice, and set me up nicely for a beery session at the local pub last night with the in-laws.

Birders - Birds

Photographing stuff in the garden on Wednesday, out mothing Wednesday night and out with the family all day yesterday, getting home well after dark. So - loads to catch up on over the next few days/posts.

Today though I was at the Bird Fair all day. Good to meet and chat with Gary 'Newton Beadnell Birding Stringer' Woodburn and Iain 'Druridge Pools' Robson, and a number of Leics. faces, like Colin Towe, Mark Andrews, Graham Finch and Mark Rossell (apologies to those I missed etc etc). Mainly though, the crack centered around the beer tent with a number of Birdfair Bitters downed in the company of John 'Drunkbirder Freebie Blagging Media Whore' Hague, Andy 'Llama' Mackay and Dave 'Teaboy' Gray. Lots of obtuse conversation about non-birdy stuff, sniping about wildlife cameramen who make you feel queasy when on the wrong side of the lens, and mainly lots of laughs. A good 3 hours whiled away around a plastic table.

I did spend a bit of time in the various marquees, and spent some money on non beer/birding items. Finally got around to getting a couple of books that have been notable ommissions from my pathetically small library - British Hoverflies by Stubbs and Dragnoflies of Britain and Europe by Dijkstra/Lewington. The BWP stand is showing the new Lewington micro book as due for publication in early 2012 - looking forward to that one.

Felt obliged to look at some birds before heading home, so dropped into Eyebrook Res for a quick look. Loads of mud. And water. A quick scan with bins revealed lots of Ringed Plovers, a few juv Ruffs and the odd Dunlin. Also loads of Lapwings. Got the scope out and confirmed that the bins were right and couldn't see anything more exciting and gave up quickly. Lazy bastard. Everything too far to photograph as usual.

So in lieu of any decent photos from today, but to maintain the unfamiliar birdyness of this post, here are some photos and vidclips from our grand day out at Scarborough yesterday.

A classic natural Kittiwake colony

Greedy fat bastard

juv Herring Gull

Herring Gulls

Great Black-backed Gull

Turnstone

Herring Gull

Let's face it - when it comes to aesthetic beauty, acoustic serenity, or any other appealing quality starting with A, Herring Gulls are pretty much bottom of the heap. Anyone who has to suffer winters looking at masses of inland gulls will surely agree that eliminating all of them from the view would be a great benefit. They are mean-looking and aggressive bastards. Not sure what the collective noun is, probably a 'Hard of Herring'.

Having said all that, once you get away from inland reservoirs, playfields and rubbish tips and into coastal towns, it is the cries of Herring Gulls that really make you feel you are at the British seaside. This is where Herring Gulls should be - scavaging the harbour and tideline for bycatch (not the prom for chips). Here's a selection - a few more on Flickr.

A Day in Dorset - 02/05/2009

My name is Mark Skevington, and I am a twitcher ...... Excepting county birds, it's well over a year since I last caved in to the old twitching mentality. News of a Collared Flycatcher during the week at Portland got me interested though, and when an Eastern Bonelli's Warbler was also on the same housing estate (!) on the Friday I gave in and got myself sorted for a long day on Dorset. I left home at 04:30am (no intention of being there at first light), and arrived at just gone 08:30 after an obligatory stop at McDonalds to use the facilities and scoff a McMuffin. I parked up in the temporary car park and made my way down to Southwell to what I expected to be a roped off area in a field looking into the back of some gardens. However the crowd was gathered on the roadway in front of the original finders garden and doing what a twitching crowd does. It was soon clear that the bird was showing frequently, but not well with only fleeting glimpses for a few depending on how close to the front of the crowd they were. Luckily, about 40 minutes after I arrived, the crowd did move to the now accessible nearby field with ample room for all looking over to the back of gardens and along an open row of large trees. Within seconds, everyone had superb scope views of the bird. And what a cracker - well worth the journey. I watched it for a good 45 minutes, as it constantly flitted about and flycatched. The only time it sat still was to sing. Sadly, it was never close enough for me to even try and photograph it. There are not too many great shots of it on the web either, with the clear exception of Pete Saunders shots on the Portland Observatory website - I think it was Pete's garden that the bird was in. See Pete's shots here and here. What a superb bird! About a third of the crowd, watching the bird in the large sycamore adjacent to the gardens it favoured. After the pleasure of watching such a superb rarity, the rest of the day was a bit flat albeit in superb and very warm full sunshine. Needless to say the Eastern Bonelli's had fecked off overnight. I decided to spend some time on Portland Bill expecting a few common migrants to be knocking about, but aside from a good few Wheatears and plenty of Swallows moving in it was pretty quiet - no Whinchats and no overhead raptors. Looking out from the bill produced a handful of Razorbills, Guillemots and Gannets but no skuas or sheawaters. Shame really as it felt like I'd wasted two and a half hours that could have been spent elsewhere. Little Owl in the Portland Observatory quarry Portland Observatory, the old lighthouse and cottages Portland Bill lighthouse Portland Bill Once I got back to the car and got going, I headed for Radipole Lake for a quick look at the long-staying Hooded Merganser of unknown (= captive?) origin. I expected to get out of the car, look at it, and get going again. What a bastard! Tame and easy it wasn't, wary and elusive it was. At least for half an hour anyway. It was right up one of the channels away from the visitor centre and sticking close to the bank. It was heading in that general direction though, and after another 20 minutes or so it was milling about right next the centre with all the scummy Mallard type hybrids! Never mind it's credentials, it was a superb looking duck and worth seeing whilst in the area. Whilst the Hooded Merganser looked resplendent, the Coot chicks were just plain fucking ugly! Not much going for it! All of the birds around Radipole seem to thrive on public handouts - there was a gathering of Herring Gulls acting like the Bastard Geese at Watermead CP. Feed us now 2S Adult Whilst looking for the merganser, there was plenty of singing from Cetti's and Sedge Warblers but I didn't see either. By now I was feeling a bit knackered and decided to head for Studland Heath before making my way home. Another waste of time really - all of the traffic seemed to funnel down to Corfe Castle & Swanage so it took a while to get there. Once I got on the heath, it was windy and despite my best efforts there were no reptiles to be found. Plenty of Large Red Damselflys about though, and a few Common Heath. Large Red Damselfly After a pretty fruitless hour at Studland, I got on the Poole Ferry and called it a day. Collared Flycatcher OMFL!