Whilst supping a coffee this morning and casually glancing at the garden
feeders, I mused to myself that as two were empty and one was about a third
full that I probably should re-fill them one more time (I usually stop feeding during spring). Seconds later I almost
spluttered the coffee all over the place as a small finch landed on the
feeders. I dashed upstairs to grab the camera, and thankfully it was still
there when I got back to the kitchen and grabbed a couple of shots ....
Well, I wasn't expecting a Lesser Redpoll any time soon! Throughout the day, it
kept re-appearing and occasionally spent time loafing in a neighbours large
shrub that overhangs our garden. I grabbed a few more shots, but all were
through the windows.
Eventually I decided it was time to try and sneak down the path from the front
garden and see if I could get shots without a window in the way. I was in luck
....
That'll do to mark this unexpected garden tick.
Seeing as the sun was out and I had the camera, a few other birds hit the
sensor.
House Sparrows have always been a garden scarcity up until the last year,
there is now a pair nesting in the eaves of one of the houses that backs
onto our garden. So nice to see and hear them more regularly. Also on the garden bird front, yesterday I noted both Blue and Great Tits
gathering mosses for nests, just before the skies darkened and we had a
series of hail showers. I'm still awaiting Blackcap in the garden; they're
late this year, I normally see and hear one well before Chiffchaff.
Here's another pretty Polly, coincidentally singing about Good Fortune ....
The sun has been out for most of the day, so it felt quite spring-like despite
the temps still not being quite up where they should be. I should have been in
for chemo today but it was deferred as bloods not right (possibly an effect of
my second Covid vaccine dose) so later in the afternoon we walked down to
the Dog and Gun for a pint or two. Aside from enjoying a pub pint in sunshine,
the walk also provided unexpected square ticks with a Field Pansy on a
roadside verge, and some escaped Wood Spurge and Aubretia.
Also some Ivy-leaved Speedwell growing on my front garden again ....
Finally, I've recently set-up an new fish tank to replace the
BiOrb
I set-up in 2010 as that was a total pain to clean out and I wanted something
bigger. The new tank is triple the volume and should be easier to maintain.
Once it was settled I transferred the remaining fish from the BiOrb and I'm
gradually adding a few new fish every couple of weeks. Tank cleanliness is
also assisted by the likes of these Amano Shrimps ....
Before you ask - I didn't stick the TG-6 in the water to get this shot. Cheers!
Wind back to Friday, cause for one reason or another I've not been arsed to
sit at the PC to sort out some pics and post. For the first time in a fair
while, I was forced to be up and out relatively early. It was bloody cold and
frosty, requiring a good window scraping before I could get going. I was
heading out to get my first Covid vaccine dose - yes, I can't believe it
happened either and I'll put it down to the efficiency of my GP Surgery and
local NHS Trust rather than anything to do with the shower in Parliament. I'm
not the first in our household to have it, as Isabelle got hers the week
before as a frontline Nurse. She had the 'Pfizer should be three-week interval
between doses but being strung out to twelve' vaccine and I've had the
'AstraZeneca derived from adenovirus extracted from Chimpanzee shite' vaccine.
There was no choice in the matter. My arm does ache like buggery, whilst when
I had the flu vaccine I felt nowt. However I have not grown excess hair or
started craving PG Tips tea.
Anyway, I had to go to a vaccination hub that has been set up in a large event
hire type place called The Kube that is right next to Oadby racecourse. On the
aerial shot below, it is the right-hand red dot. The other red dot denotes the
car park for Knighton Park, which as you can see appears to have something
resembling woodland. It also happens to be just within the 5MR boundary, and
the roadway between the two is the main road to head back home ....
After the jab I nipped over to see my Mum, just a bit further north on the edge
of the City boundary, and then on the way home I decided to drop into the park
for a mooch about. By then it was c10:00, crisp and bright. But it was late
enough that there were plenty of dog-walkers trawling the main path and also
mums with tots starting to gather around the play areas. As ever, it's easy
enough to walk away from the madding crowd and enjoy some space, and as usual
I've managed to grab a few snaps that make the place look a whole lot emptier
than it actually was. I couldn't erase the noise of screaming kids though.
Knighton Park is long established, and has big areas with planted trees, some
formal gardens, kids play area and butts onto some big open sports fields. It
is exactly the sort of place within my 5MR that is likely to be a good bet for
some species that might otherwise be found in woodland. I had bins, and
enjoyed the quick walk around, but sadly did not see or hear what I was hoping
for, ie: Treecreeper, Nuthatch and Siskin. I suspect a proper look around
earlier in the morning and perhaps a couple of weeks or so later will be much
more productive. I did find a small group of Goldcrests
in the conifers in the above shot though.
I could only give it c45mins as I had another GP Surgery appointment to get
to. Later in the afternoon, I had a walk out into the square and a bit beyond,
heading down the lane, onto the meadows area and then walked Whetstone Gorse
Lane. Still no Skylark - where are they? Another Red Kite drifted over, and I
found a big mixed flock of Fieldfare (c150) Redwing (c80) and Starlings
feeding in a flooded stretch of the meadows. The whole flock was very
flighty so I couldn't get anywhere near for closer shots and left them to it
quickly.
Whilst walking back toward home along Whetstone Gorse Lane, I took this photo on my phone which preceded the most bizarre birding experience I've had for a while ....
Just as the phone hit my pocket, an unmistakeable raucous squawk hit my
earholes and I lifted the bins to see a
Ring-necked Parakeet flying directly above and following the line of
the trees you can see on the left in the above shot. This is the middle of
sterile farmland in Leics. - not Surrey. We have had numerous sightings over
the years in Leics. and Rutland of odd individuals that the former County
Recorder always dismissed. However in the last decade, and particularly in the
last three or four years there has been an increase in sightings and it has
been added to the County list. We now appear to have two resident and growing
populations - one in Evington and one in Braunstone. Neither of which I've
ever made an effort to see, so this bizarre flyover was a County Tick! And
it's not even my first VC55 parrot - years ago I was bemused to find a Budgie
at Ketton Quarry.
All of this preceded the snow that we've had since. It snowed a little on
Friday night, but that didn't last much beyond Saturday late morning. It
started again last night which has just continued on and off through the day.
I've been watching the garden feeders expecting something to drop in but no -
just the same regular crowd. No Great Spotted Woodpecker so far this year, and
no Bullfinch either. We've been getting up to 15 or so Goldfinches at a time
for weeks, but today we had a flock of c40 battling for feeder space. Also one
or two Greenfinches at a time but only briefly and generally once or twice a
day. This is completely the other way around to how our garden feeders were a
couple of decades a go when Greenfinches always markedly outnumbered
Goldfinches. We've also had a couple of brief Chaffinches today - again they
used to turn up here much more regularly.
The snow is still lying now, and has already just about recovered footsteps
around the feeders. It's not exactly deep, but the kids around the estate have
made the most of the day. I doubt it'll last too long though, back to floods
next week I expect.
Here's some charmingly witty jingoistic 70s/80s television
advertising ....
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.
Today was one that was constrained, in that I needed to complete some work around the middle of the day. So this morning I nipped over to Huncote Embankment with the aim of trying to photograph Odonata, and then this afternoon I've been out to Bradgate Park with Nichola.
This morning was warm enough, with good sunny spells but always some brooding clouds in view that in the end came to nothing.
The main plan was to point the camera at damselflies, and specifically to try and photograph Small Red-eyed Damselfly. I have seen this species before, years ago not long after first colonisation. We dropped into the Bluewater Shopping Center on the way back from a twitch, quite probably the Pallid Harrier in August 2002 but memory has gone hazy. I've never looked for or knowingly seen one since then, despite their rapid and widespread colonisation. And today was no different as to be honest the conditions were not great - either bright sunshine causing fervent activity or a cloudy spell when everything settled out of view or range. I think I may have caught one, but the angle is terrible and it's far from totally convincing. I was also confused by the apparent presence of (Large) Red-eyed Damselfly which I thought would be well over by now, but apparently isn't.
I think these shots are Red-eyed Damselfly followed by Small Red-eyed Damselfly based on the terminal segments, but I'll try again on a better day.
Also a few Common Darters around, and plenty of Blue-tailed Damsleflies.
I also spotted by chance what I think may be the first Orange Ladybird larva I've seen.
Later in the afternoon, we headed to Bradgate Park. Despite the reasonable weather and being slap bang in the middle of summer, it was a lot quieter than I expected it might be. All the better. Nice views, plenty of deer - albeit distant - and a few birds and bits whilst we wandered about.
These deer really were a long way off, at least 100 meters, probably more.
A walk around the outer perimeter of the ruins brought some plants and a new fly ....
After this shot I managed to pot what was clearly a robber fly, and it's now pinned and works through quite simply to Machimus cingulatus - though you can't see all features here apart from leg colouration.
There is plenty of fruiting Deadly Nightshade here if you have anyone that you think would benefit from some herbal remedy ....
I spotted a Purple Hairstreak a long way up in an oak, and also some galls on Walnut caused by the mite Aceria erinea ....
The main avian interest though came from a range of juvs ....
Confident and fully independent Stonechat
Confident to the point of cocky Goldfinch in a feeding flock with other juvs
Pathetic begging Reed Bunting that had barely fledged - no tail, no flight
