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.

SP5595ish - First Foray

Today dawned bright and early. For some I'm sure at least; for me there was no intention of getting up at the crack of dawn as an evening on large whiskies and the constraint of a bi-daily visit from the District Nurse meant I was going nowhere early anyway. By the time I looked out into the garden, it was evident that the clear cold skies that prevailed into the night at the end of 2020 had been replaced by dank grey clag. I whiled away some time watching the garden feeders, and after the nurse had been I got ready to head out for a walk down the lane. I was not intending too go all out crawling through the undergrowth - I can't anyway as I'm still a physically restricted with regards to bending over (getting my boots on and laced up without help was a milestone!). I had my bins, P900, phone and dictaphone.

It remained steadfastly grey, in fact the conditions only worsened whilst I was out for a couple of hours. Before hitting the lane, I'd already picked up a fair number of plants heading out of the estate including some obvious escapes: Mahonia, Lesser Periwinkle, Sowbread, Buddleija, Spotted Medick and these ....

Purple Toadflax

Spotted Dead-nettle

Italian Lords-and-Ladies

In total I managed to record a modest 46 vascular plants. This includes trees, plants identifiable from their leaves or fruit and a handful of flowering plants. I clearly saw a lot more than 46 species; there are plenty to come as they develop and I can spend more time focussing on them.

I completely ignored any invertebrate life. Between the garden and walking about I saw 25 bird species and 1 mammal (the resident garden Squirrels). There were no avian surprises, and the light was shocking but that didn't stop me pointing the camera at a few to garner some rubbish photos.

Common Buzzard

Fieldfare - at least 60 feeding across a couple of fields

Redwing - only around 10 of these with Fieldfare

Common Gull - with camera pointing through a hedge giving the weird vignetting effect

With 4 fungi, 2 lichens and a moss noted, I've ended up on 79sp. - not bad for a couple of hours in dull and uninspiring conditions. By the time I was heading back up the lane to home a steady drizzle had set in.

W'happen!

Unbelievable - you go on holiday, have a cracking time in the sunshine relaxing without the kids and all, and next thing you know it's Christmas and New Year. Been absolutely nowhere, done nowt and seen even less since the end of October. I did nip over to Watermead CP on 31st after finishing work, though only briefly as it was cold and far too sunny for decent photography so just a few quick shots grabbed.

Happy New Year - perhaps I'll do, see and post a bit more in 2015 ......

Gullden Opportunity

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.

Gulls

For anyone who wondered what I've been doing whilst not blogging, the simple answer is not seeing a lot of natural history wonders. I've been busy with work and other stuff, and we did have a brilliant week in Ibiza at the end of October. So, doing lots but doing nothing that I've felt compelled to pull together into blog posts. Actually I have got a few good posts-worth of photos from Ibiza which I may well get around to some time.

Today though I did raise my bins for the first time in ages, and looked at some gulls. Not big, rare or difficult gulls - just standard common stuff at Watermead CP South. In fact there weren't too many gulls at lunch time, but more pertinently there was precisely zero bread-welding idiots and a distinct lack of sedentary and unhealthy Mute Swans and Canada Geese as a result. Sadly there was still an unwelcome hoarde of inbred farm/greylag hybrid types which are overdue for culling.

I carefully checked all the gulls that were present, and found none with colour-rings (or any other rings for that matter). Still - nice to be out again, even for a short stop.

This last one is from Portinatx, Ibiza. My juv Gull skills are not great, but I reckon this is a Yellow-legged Gull. All in favour say 'aye' in the comments.

Gulls n Owls

Left work early this afternoon to sort a couple of things out, and then managed to spend an hour or two enjoying some birds. Not exactly birding, more turning up and pointing the camera in the right direction.

I headed over to Watermead CP South for another go at some gull shots - maybe the inccessant Gulling propaganda from a well know Seaton-based blogger is starting to rub off. As ever, plenty of bread-wielding wankers ensuring masses of inapproriate food for the wildfowl and plenty of scavenging opportunities for the gulls. The car park area is often awash with Black-headed Gulls, but otherwise usually just a few Common Gulls and most of these are first-winter birds. I was pleased then to find a nice adult Common Gull within reach for a few shots.

Also unexpected was this damned ugly second-winter Lesser Black-backed Gull.

Despite some searching, no sign of anything interesting (ie as usual no Med Gulls, and no sign of any Yellow-legged or Caspians amongst the larger gulls around the island) so I filled up the card with a few more Common Gull shots instead - these are all different individuals.

One thing I will say for gulls is that the variability amongst individuals is more noticeable than in many other bird groups. Have look at this short vidiclip and see how different the size and structure is of the heads on these two first-winter Commons (presume the smaller bird is female).

With time pressing I quickly headed over to Cossington Meadows to check out the wintering Short-eared Owls. I hadn't even got alongside Swan Meadow before I'd picked one up in good late afternoon daylight. After five minutes or so I had four up together, with audible calling and a few jousts and skirmishes between them for good measure - brilliant stuff, but none of which I managed to capture on the camera in any way. I did get some vidiclip footage though, which I implore you to watch. Personally I think the drifting in and out of focus and the intruding Teasel heads make it all the more evocative ......

Done some light birding

It seems like ages since I actually managed to go out, alone, with nothing to do but look at birds or some other wildlife. Today I left it late, but nonetheless an hour or so at Watermead CP South this afternoon with bins and camera was very welcome. From a yearlisting perspective, things got off to a good start (in a bizarre sort of way) as I only saw a few species with nothing too exciting and lots of things not seen that perhaps could have been. In fact the most interesting bird seen today was a Shelduck on the backside of the island, seeing as I managed not to see one all though the 2011 yearlist challenge. I'm at 39 species with a few bits from the garden thrown in. This means I will have to go out again and expend a bit more energy.

The lighting was rubbish, with short bursts of too bright and low sunshine in between lengthy spells of gloom. I pointed the camera at some common stuff anyway, just in case I start to forget how to use a shutter button.