København +

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.

Gulling ....

.... 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' ....