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.

[Hybrid] Larus hyperboreus

I got Nichola to take me out today so we could enjoy a walk in the still, bright sunshine - a world away from the shite weather overnight. We headed to Watermead Country Park South; I knew it would be busy and we knew there was a risk that the easy footpaths would actually be underwater - but it was fine and we enjoyed a good hour and a half walking around. I was hoping that there would be common waterfowl and gulls to point the lens at, and I was without any other optics on the basis that if it was not close enough to photograph it didn't matter what it was. But I was completely unprepared for any ornithological interest beyond the common stuff.

There is a large car park at this site, and the nearest area of water to it has over the last couple of decades at least become a feeding area. I've moaned about that before, but at least today I could see lots of floating lettuce leaves and grain spilled out all over the place - much better than bags full of loaves of white bread. As I watched the Mallards, Mute Swans, Coots and Black-headed Gulls constantly fighting over the spoils I suddenly noticed this floating about like a lumbering biscuit ....

My immediate thought was juv Glaucous Gull, based on its size (pretty big, Herring Gull sized and perhaps a tad larger), pink basal section of the bill, apparent lack of grey/black tones and brown-centered primaries with white tips. The legs were bubble-gum pink coloured, and in flight the primaries just appeared pale.

This is far from a prime site for large gulls. And I am far from a larophile. Large gulls are not my favourite group of avian beings, and I just don't get excited about the minutiae of identifying them. Still I couldn't ignore it, and I got a good number of shots as it loafed about in between shorts bursts of flight.

I put the news out locally, and an hour or so later whilst waiting in the car whilst Nichola nipped into a supermarket I managed to download a phone app and transfer a representative shot from the camera to my phone. I sent it through to Andy Mackay (ex-county recorder and current custodian of the VC55 bird news services). He immediately commented that it looked a little dark and was, perhaps, a hybrid .... sigh.

Once I got home, I sent a series of photos to Andy, Steve Lister (another ex-county recorder) and Carl Baggot (current county recorder). Carl and Steve certainly have a lot more recent experience with large gull ID. Pretty swift feedback was that this would in all likelihood have been recorded as juv Glaucous on distant/fly-by views, but with the benefit of my photos there were clear anomalies - but it was an interesting gull.

eg: black on the bill appears to extend too far up toward the nostrils, rather than a clear-cut black tip; primary projection appears too long; undertail barring too extensive; tertial pattern too 'Herring Gull' like; looks like it has moulted some mantle feathers, and despite it's size the head-shape and general jizz make it look a bit daintier than might be expected.

I think it's fair to say that when any large gull is 'interesting' it means the ID is far from certain. The consensus is that this is likely to be a Gaucous x Herring hybrid, and quite possibly a second-generation hybrid at that. It's likely that this bird will be back in the area so maybe others can have a look and see if anything more definitive comes out.

In the meantime, here's a much easier to identify duck that refused to come out in the open.

Red Rings and Bread Baskets

Today I ventured manfully back to work properly, despite still feeling the wrong side of well, after fielding e-mails and the odd call from home the last two days. By late afternoon I was feeling a bit crap again and thought some fresh air would help, so I left work and took a detour to Watermead CP South before heading home.

Before I start recounting what I saw, here's a poser in a very Not Quite Scilly-esque style. I should point out that anyone from Leics. & Rutland is excluded by virtue of insider knowledge, and anyone who has read another Leics. birders blogs is also excluded. But the other one of you, click on this for big and what do you see?

Before that, I had a quick look at gulls (even more NQS-esque I know). I even made an effort to look for any coloured adournments on their legs and found this:

Black-headed Gull, Red-on-Left, V028, Denmark - hopefully full details will come through but I am sure this has been recorded here before by the Teaboy.

The only other gull I liked was this nice clean Lesser Black-backed loafing about briefly until I pointed the camera at it.

I also found, whilst searching for what I had actually hoped to see, a pair of Red-crested Pochards and a distant Oystercatcher on the island - neither of which were particularly photographable but that never stopped me before.

Facing the wrong way - both me and the duck

It's one of the black and white blobs, up the bank and far left of the Goosander I hadn't spotted before blowing this up and lightening it a bit.

So back to the opener - did you see anything, or did you just cheat and skip through all the shots?

The aforementioned Teaboy found an immature xyz calendar year sub-adult Whooper Swan earlier in the week and it was still around yesterday so I thought it worth a look. I had hoped that it would be acting at least a little respectably, like the Bewick's Swan at the same site last year. I dilligently searched though all of the swans that were not engaged in frantic bread-eating. I figured that if it was still present, it would be keeping away from the melee and avoiding the larger and bulkier Mutes. Consequently I couldn't find it initially, because the greedy bugger was actually front-of-house and more than holding its own, actually grabbing the Mutes and forcing its way to the masses of yeast-based shite being thrown at it.

Once I'd sussed this, I reeled off loads of shots - many being a bit rubbish as it was either too close or too engaged in bread-eating. However here's a load to bore you with. Skip to the end if you really don't like Whoopers (who doesn't like Whoopers!?).

I doubt it will be leaving soon, in fact I seriously doubt if it will be able to fly! Meanwhile, amongst the Mutes this one was particularly striking with its very stained head ..

I caught some garden moths last night, but that can wait.

A grand day out

After emptying the moth traps this morning (not sure 'emptying' is the right word given that there was only 4 moths of 3 sp.) I got out and about and spent the day flitting from one site to another in the county, enjoying some good company on the way and seeing some nice things. Most importantly, I avoided that wedding bollocks.

Started off at Birstall Meadows. Hadn't even got my bins out of the car when Dave Gray pulled up for a like-minded squint around the area. Nothing too exciting here though, aside from a couple of Common Sandpipers and the LRPs again. We then had a quick look around the horse fields - nothing there either, before nipping over to Watermead CP South. Immediately picked up a few Swifts, a City Yeartick, but no sign of any terns and the conditions were not really suitable for any potential movement either. We had a good walk around but nothing else noteworthy, apart from the resident drake Red-crested Pochard and a plastic Snow Goose.

Next we headed across to Aylestone Meadows. Despite some thorough scanning of the horse fields and meadows, no sign of anything interesting (ie no Wheatears, Whinchats or Ouzels!). I did pick up Linnet for the City Yearlist though. Otherwise the most exciting thing was a Fox openly foraging and sitting by a den entrance with three playful cubs. Always too distant for proper shots, though I tried at full optical zoom and then realised the digital zoom went up to x96 (but with expected deterioration of image). Better than nothing though (but the cub shots were too crap).

By now it was early afternoon and the sun was breaking through. I decided that it was time to head east whilst Dave headed back to Wanlip. I decided to go to Ketton Quarry, but drove along the Stockerston road to have a quick look at Eyebrook on the way. Driving along the gated track a large raptor drifted low over the field and perched on a fence post. This was some way from the reservoir, but it was an Osprey. I scoped it for a few minutes but it was going nowhere, just sitting there with the sun on its back. I carried on to the reservoir and bumped into Andy Mackay who was just scoping a superb full breeding plumaged Slavonian Grebe. I got set up and, after a couple of minutes got great views of this superb bird. A fair few Common Terns kierricking up and down the res, and an odd 'flock' of 33 Great Crested Grebes all bunched up in one small area. Not a lot else though, so off to Ketton. Andy decided this was as good an idea as any and came along.

By the time we got there it was warmer and the sun was trying, but it was windy. No sign of any snakes or lizards in the usual area, though I picked up a single Grizzled Skipper which was nice.

Walking around the reserve yielded no further Grizzled and no Dingy Skippers, and not a lot else flying either other than a couple of Common Heaths. I did manage to pot up a couple of micros, with the best being Pancalia leuwenhoekella which I'll get a shot of tomorrow along with a couple of other bits. The Manx Loaghtan sheep were in the donkey paddock, but they didn't bother us whilst we had a mooch about. I lifted a tin sheet expecting nothing underneath, but just saw a small tail under an adjacent rock. After a bit if careful coaxing we got brief but superb views of a juvenile Adder. Way too fast for any shots and hard to accurately estimate the size, maybe 25cm long at most but much smaller in body size. Usually these are born in the late summer / early autumn, so this would have overwintered. No idea how long it takes to reach adulthood.

Next we had a mooch about looking for Scarlet Tiger caterpillars, finding one which looked pretty much full grown. This was in a different area to the one I found a couple of weeks ago so definitely worth searching for adults this year. The other main interest came in the form of a very squawky Jay that was definitely riled by something, a flyover pair of Ravens, and later a Raven going back the other way with a pair of Peregrines not far behind. Superb. Also a few plants worth mentioning ..

Lords and Ladies

White Briony

Japanese Knotweed - despite the bext efforts of the trust this parasite persists.

By now it was late afternoon and time to head home. Had the conditions have been better I'd have been up for some mothing tonight. But they're not. I decided to have another quick look at Watermead CP South - still no terns. I also had a look around Birstall Lodge farm. No City Yearlist ticks but I found a plant that shouldn't be growing wild along a rough bridle track alongside more expected fare.

Greater Periwinkle

Common Vetch

Watermead CP South BioBlitz 30th/31st May 2010

As those in VC55 know, Watermead Country Park is a pretty big area split into a north and south section with the Birstall Meadows in between. the southern part is managed by the City council, whilst the County council manages the northern section. The BioBlitz was organised with involvment from both councils and a number of local charities and organisations, and was also linked to the BBC Springwatch wild days out campaign.

The overriding aim of the BioBlitz was obviously to conduct a snap survey of the whole ecology of the site covering all taxonomic orders, but the real prize was to get as many people involved and enthused as possible.

In support of the event, I joined up with Adrian Russell on Sunday night to conduct some moth trapping at Watermead CP South. The conditions were not ideal, with a very stong breeze prevalent though the temperature was reasonable and we had a bit of cloud cover.

The 24 hour BioBlitz started at 5pm on Sunday. When I arrived early in the evening, the WCPS list was already at 43 species before any formal searches/surveys had started. I had a mooch about for a few minutes whilst I waited for Adrian and I promptly added a few obvious species to the list - including Brown Rat. Also a couple of loud warblers, and a less obvious addition was this milling about with the feral geese and bread-crazed Mute Swans - it obviously has no self respect and is as plastic as any duck I've seen ..

Red-crested Pochard

We got the traps set and waited for the moths and public. I'd set my traps in the south-eastern corner within the wood and scrub south of 'Mammoth Hill'. After a slow start things picked up, and I managed to pot a huge female Poplar Hawk-moth just in time to show a gaggle of punters that were being lead around on a bat walk. I diverted them to the best of my four traps and was able to show them a number of species including Pale Prominent, Green Carpet, Brimstone Moth, Common White Wave, May Highflyer, White-pinion Spotted, Clouded Silver, and some less exciting stuff like Heart and Dart and Flame Shoulder. They were suitably impressed and it was good to get members of the public showing an interest in something they'd normally not get a chance to see.

Whilst walking about between traps I picked up a calling Tawny Owl, and I found this on the path - another one for the big list ..

Common Toad

As well as the moths, we potted up a fair few other inverts for others to ID the following day including several Caddis Flies, Crane-flies, and odd sawflies, earwigs, centipedes and ground beetles. Whilst my traps were going okay, the sheet that Adrian was running and most of his traps were a bit more exposed to the wind and seemed a bit quiet. By midnight we decided to pack up.

My four traps (3 x 125W MV & 1 x 250W metal halide) picked up a total of 184 of 43 sp. - most of which were new for the site seeing as very little trapping has ever been done there. Here's a summary of my catch:

First for year:
1301 Crambus lathoniellus 2
1879 Seraphim (Lobophora halterata) 1
1931 Peppered Moth (Biston betularia) 1
1991 Elephant Hawk-moth (Deilephila elpenor) 3
2280 Miller (Acronicta leporina) 1
2306 Angle Shades (Phlogophora meticulosa) 1
2337x Marbled Minor agg. (Oligia strigilis agg.) 1
2384 Vine's Rustic (Hoplodrina ambigua) 1
2410 Marbled White Spot (Protodeltote pygarga) 1
2489 Fan-foot (Zanclognatha tarsipennalis) 1

Highest counts:
1776 Green Carpet (Colostygia pectinataria) 34
2102 Flame Shoulder (Ochropleura plecta) 20
2089 Heart and Dart (Agrotis exclamationis) 16
0017 Common Swift (Hepialus lupulinus) 12
1802 Rivulet (Perizoma affinitata) 12
1778 May Highflyer (Hydriomena impluviata) 6

With Adrian's sheet and traps, we got the total up to 277 of 55 sp. The only interest from the sheet for me were yearticks in the form of Chilo phragmitella, Small Clouded Brindle and Gold Spot. Over at Watermead CP North, Graham Finch managed a total of 251 of 50 sp. including a few larval records and the first Netted Pug for Leicestershire (only recorded in Rutland previously), and in total we'd managed 77 species - not bad at all.

Chilo phragmitella

Marbled White Spot - completely unexpected at this site

Miller

I headed back out on Monday afternoon with Nichola and the boys to get them involved and to try and add a few day-flying micros to the overall list. We got the boys sorted with a 'find these species' quiz/checksheet and used that as the basis to potter about the site whilst I potted/netted anything that looked interesting or identifiable.

I can't 'knit' photos but you get the gist - looking down from Mammoth Hill.

To be honest, if I'd had enough pots and time I could have gone mad with inverts but I had to restrict myself to just a few. Nonetheless I added a good few inverts to the list plus listed a few others to be sure they were covered, including four ladybirds (Harlequin, 7-Spot, 2-Spot & 14-Spot), a couple of damselflies (Common Blue and Blue-tailed), Common Blue butterfly, a couple of weevils (Phyllobius pomaceus and Apion miniatum), a superb Wasp Beetle and a couple of spiders (Large-jawed Ord Web Spider and Cucumber Spider). Also a few small leaf beetles and a sawfly that I can't remember the names of.

Cucumber Spider

The main objective of course was the micros, but with fairly cool and dull conditions there weren't many flying, though I did add 6 species including 3 yearticks: Grapholita compositella, Pseudargyrotoza conwagana and Nettle-tap (plus Ancylis badiana, Epiblema cynosbatella and Cocksfoot Moth).

Pseudargyrotoza conwagana - big stupid name, small stunning moth

Grapholita compositella

A great way to spend the afternoon, and I thoroughly enjoyed looking for stuff that is usually incidental or ignored when I'm out. The site was busy with people looking at the potted up specimens on tables, pond-dipping trays etc and I'd say the event was a big success. I look forward to seeing the final lists for each section of the park and the overall total which I'm sure will be well over 500 species (already well over 400 for each section without the insects).

If a BioBlitz is arranged near you - get involved!

Waterlogged Watermead

I headed out early this morning before it was light, and made my way over to Watermead CP North. I was hoping (though not expecting) that the Woodcocks that were loitering around Kingfisher hide last weekend were still feeding openly. I hadn't been to this site this early in the day before though, and didn't realise that the car park and hides were all locked until 08:30 - what a load of bollocks that is.

Whilst I waited, I walked down the main roadway and had a bit of a look around the general access parts of the park. Two things were immediately clear:
1) the big thaw was not complete as all of the large bodies of water were still partially iced over
2) irrespective of this the big thaw was clearly underway as large tracts of paths and land were under rising water

A nice flock of feeding Lesser Redpoll and a flyover party of Goosander (1m, 3f) brightened the mood. As soon as the warden arrived, I brought the car in and headed toward Kingfisher hide. Despite giving it plenty of time and patience, there were no Woodcock today. The bird-feeding table was standing in water, but it and most of the hangers were stocked and attracting a good number of birds - nothing more exciting than Nuthatch and Reed Bunting though. Before long, a Water Rail showed itself though the distance and shockingly bad light meant that only desperately poor record shots were possible (for me and my inadequate photography gear!).



I then headed toward Plover hide, only to be met halfway there by the warden proclaiming that part of the reserve to be closed due to flooding. WTF! This whole area is a fucking floodplain - of course it's flooded and that's exactly why I wanted to go and look at it. I walked around the main path and what I could see of the area revealed a good group of Teal and Shoveler that appeared to be enjoying the sensation of swimming and dabbling again. Then things got surreal.

I noticed a Grey Heron hunting in a ditch, and I decided to try and approach it cautiously from the other side and get some photos. I was almost there, patiently stalking, when a pair of completely fuckwitted pensioners and their dog came right up behind the heron. To be fair, the dog ambled past quietly and completely ignored said heron. Unlike the dog, the adult male fuckwit made a deliberate and intentional approach to the heron squawking loudly like a demented chicken. I called over and asked him, politely, whether his action was necessary. His response was that he didn't like them, and his decrepit partner helpfully added that they eat fish from ponds. I pointed out that this ditch was not a pond, but the heron may well be heading for one now, and advised them that they were fucking imbeciles.

I had just got back onto the main path and noticed a woman approaching with a small dog and a pushchair. Nothing unusual at first glance, then I realised that in the pushchair was another small dog. Eh? First it's all these celebrity twats walking around with them in handbags, and now one being taken for walk in a pushchair. I'm sure there was a plausible explanation, though window-licking eccentricity still seems most likely to me.

By now, the place was awash with dog walkers and idiots - generally all walking in smaller circuits than usual due to the rather large flowing puddles on their usual routes. I was about to throw in the towel when I bumped into the freshly arrived Drunkbirder. He was waiting to meet up with the Tea Boy and look for the Red-crested Pochard that had been loitering about. Seemed like a good idea, so we headed back to Kingfisher hide whilst we waited - still no Woodcock but now two Water Rails.

Dave arrived and we drove back down to the main parking area (having to stop abruptly to give way to a selfish wheelchair user intent on using all of the roadway rather than the sleeping-policeman-free pathway, but with no intention of following usual vehicular conventions like driving on the left and using roundabouts - fucking hell it's not the London Marathon). Dave saw claimed strung a flyover redhead Smew on the way down, me and John only saw a flypast female Goosander.

We got properly booted up for the watery hike over to the waterski pit, and headed off passing a pair of mentalist dog walkers taking their unhappy looking dog for an unintended swim on one of the tracks. The waterski pit is technically off-limits, as it doubles up as a private fishing lake. No fishermen today though, and no Cormorant shooting. We soon found the quarry - damn fine it looked too, even if a bit plastic.



After a good look at it, and more Goosander (1m, 2f), I made my excuses and headed home to domestic chores etc. Despite the frustrations and people, it was good to be out again and I did enjoy the morning - honestly.