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.