Quick and Snappy

I've not got the energy at the minute to think of a neat title or chose a themed track.

I emptied the moth trap this morning to the chirpy repetitiveness of a Chiffchaff on the embankment next to the garden. I wonder if any other early warblers had arrived, so between medical appointments and other tasks I nipped to both Jubilee Park and Everards Meadows for a quick walk through.

Jubilee Park was quiet, no sign of the Oystercatchers and nothing else new in. A quick look at the new 'scrape' gave up nothing but wagtails. Everards Meadows was busy around the car park/cafe area, but as ever it doesn't take much to walk away off the main paths and avoid people. The scrubby cover between the meadows were alive with birdsong, but aside from another couple of Chiffchaffs no other warblers. Not surprised as it's early, but this will be the best chance on my patch of picking up Garden Warbler I reckon.

Who doesn't like a smart Pied Wagtail in spring though? I also found a fallen dead ash tree covered in Cramp Balls. You would be amazed what I found on that. 

Back at home, the garden Snakes-head Fritillaries have pushed through and not far from full flowering, so it can only be a matter of days before the first Scarlet Lily Beetles show up.

The moth trap incidentally was devoid of anything new, but this Red-green Carpet is from Sunday night.

Hunter C(o)untry

Yesterday late afternoon I dropped into Jubilee Park on my way back from shopping at Fosse Park. I hoped that arriving later in the day might throw up some movement of birds in/out of the area, and I was not far off right although nothing spectacular. Whilst mooching about a redhead Goosander dropped in, Wigeon were constantly milling about between feeding on the grassy area and dropping into the pool, and several large gulls and cormorants arrived. The pair of Oystercatchers were still around, the Tufteds were up to five, and a number of Greylag Geese were 5MR yearticks. A quick walk around didn't throw up much else, and after a last scan of the pool I was about to head off when local birder Pete Asher popped up. We had a good natter, during the course of which the pair of Oystercatchers departed, a Chiffchaff flew across and into bushes behind us and - at last - two Kingfishers flew past over the field, short-cutting the path of the river.

I also had a quick look at the balancing pool at Grove Park which was almost literally devoid of wildfowl save for four pairs of Mallards and a pair each of Coot and Moorhen. On Friday a quick scan over the flooded fields off of the Guthlaxton Trail yielded some Teal for another patch yeartick.

Today I've had Goldcrest calling and moving through the embankment adjacent to the garden, and a few more spring insects have popped up including Tree Bumblebee, Peacock butterfly and Common Wasp.

Moths over the last couple of nights have included both Chestnut and Dark Chestnut - nether in their finest livery ....

This afternoon I headed for a quick walk along the lane and carried onto Whetstone Gorse Lane. I just had my bins, sadly, as once I'd got to the area that is (mis)managed for Pheasant shoots I could hear someone yelling at their dogs. Sure enough, after loitering for a while, a pair of typical Cuntry folk appeared some way behind their trio of small terriers: one of which was completely loose and two were tethered together but free to drag each other along. They appeared to be being used illegally, as evidenced by a Muntjac bounding away from the tethered pair only to be chased avidly by the lone dog. As far as I understand, a single terrier may be used by gamekeepers on shooting estates to eg force a fox out of a hole to enable it to be shot; the Hunting Act 2004 doesn't allow anyone to run their trio of terriers through gamebird cover and leave them free to chase and get whatever they can. Neither of the folk were carrying a gun, so no legal shooting of 'pests' disturbed by a lone terrier, let alone three of them. When it was clear that they had little control, I shouted that the dogs seemed more interested in hunting. I expected some sort of comment that there was no hunting going on etc, but the response was bold as brass "that's their job". Cuntry folk eh.

Down by The River

Today was dull and cloudy in the main, but I had time and enthusiasm enough to take myself to the river and head out onto the patch at Jubilee Park. The water levels have dropped a lot since the last time I was there, with a big drop from the bank down to the water ....

The poor lighting was not ideal for bird photography, especially with everything on full zoom, but I pointed it at a couple of nice 5MR yearticks:

This Treecreeper was constantly active up, down and around a large tree overhanging the river and getting any shot at all was a miracle - this the only one vaguely in focus/still enough to use. A near-silent Chiffchaff was also noted but too obscured by twiggery to bother trying for a snap; no singing, just a couple of pathetic 'hooeet' calls. Best of all though were a pair of these around the pool ....

I have seen Oystercatcher at this site before, and this pair was mating frequently so perhaps they'll stay. Still plenty of Wigeon around the pool, and the lone drake Tufted Duck was now joined by a pair. Both drumming Great Spotted Woodpecker and no less than four fly-past Green Woodpeckers were nice, but oddly no Little Egrets today and sadly still no sign of Kingfisher.

Just across the road, there is a large channel/scrape that was created last year. I assume it was an attempt at flood management but it's not been effective on that front. But when the water levels drop it looks like it could be attractive to the odd common wader (and it certainly wasn't created for that purpose):

Common Sandpiper, Dunlin and LRP have all been noted around the Jubilee Park pool in past years and could easily use this. Perhaps Green or Wood Sandpiper could drop in. No waders on it today though, but both Pied and Grey Wagtail bobbing around the perimeter.

Here's a beetle from yesterday that you're going to have to take my word for ....

This is Ptomaphagus subvillosus, or at least is seems to key to that okay using Duff, a new one for me. The photo above probably looks a bit odd: that's because I spotted and took some snaps of it on the shiny black roof of Isabelle's Mini before potting it - not quite the usual habitat for this group of beetles. I've squinted at it live under the microscope but not taken any snaps as yet, and I expect it will curl up into an uncardable blob once euthanised.

The moth trap has picked up a little in terms of numbers, but not so much in species diversity. Here's a couple of NFY from the last couple of nights though:

Light Brown Apple Moth

Small Quaker

And here's some catkins to cheer us up: a few more days/degrees and these should be buzzing with inverts:

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.

Canal Side

Another day, another place, another walk. This morning though I had no real constraints, so I fancied heading out for a longer walk than I've been doing. It was a frosty start with remnants of Sunday's snow still lying, but the forecast was for a dull day with rain from mid-morning so I opted to head out early. I needed to fill up the fuel tank and sort my tyre pressures out anyway so headed to Sainsbury's at Fosse Park (where I usually fill up as it has pay at pump) and then parked up at the newly-established Everards Meadows site on the other side of the big junction. This site is within my pre-defined Soar Valley South patch, but back then it was not opened up and accessible like it is now though some of the area beyond it along the Soar and Grand Union Canal was accessible from the other side. On the aerial map, the area is a swathe of green sandwiched between urban areas.

The red dot is the car park for Everards Meadows; the blue dot is where I joined the canal tow path after crossing the River Soar on a newly constructed bridge; the cyan dot is where the canal and river pass underneath the Soar Valley Way (which is the northern boundary of my patch) and marks the southern boundary of Aylestone Meadows; the yellow dot is Kings Lock; the magenta dot marks the point where the River Soar and Grand Union Canal converge, and the orange dot is as far as I walked before heading back.

Right from the start it looked like it was going to be dark all day, with a hazy sun rapidly disappearing behind cloud. 

This frozen over area is not a pond, it's where a patch of osier and rush has been flooded. There was a handful of pipits and wagtails pottering about over the ice, but nothing other than Meadow and Pied.

Meadow Pipit about to try for a triple-salchow

The river was flowing okay, perhaps flowing a bit faster and deeper then usual after the floods and thaw, but the canal was frozen over. Hopes of a Kingfisher faded quickly.

I picked up a few nice binocular views along the way, including a small group of Bullfinches, Reed Buntings, and a couple of Goldcrests actively working the under-hang of a lichen encrusted hawthorn. A couple of Great Spotted Woodpeckers were partially obscured by twiggery during the walk but I gave it a go.

The shot below is looking north-ish towards the Soar Valley Way roadway, the patch boundary. Immediately the other side of this marks the start of Aylestone Meadows, but along this stretch at least the habitat is the same. 

The following are both looking west-ish from the canal tow path, the first south of the Soar Valley Way and the other across the southern end of Aylestone Meadows.

Pylons are worth looking at along here for Peregrine - but today the only bird perched on these structures was a Cormorant.

Redwing and Fieldfare always seem more relaxed in smaller groups, more flighty in big flocks.

The following is looking south at Kings Lock Cottage and the frozen lock.

This is bridge allows access across the western side of Aylestone Meadows, an area I'll have a good look around later in the year. The bridge goes over the River Soar, which then joins the Grand Union Canal. It was amazing how the canal was frozen over to the south of this point and rapidly changed to free-flowing after the convergence.

A bit further on was a very confiding drake Goosander, which was very nice but also helps to show how shocking the light was - a cracking subtle bird made to look monochrome ....

By the time I got back to the car I'd been walking for c3hrs. It's not a massive distance walked, but it's the furthest I've done so far and I was feeling it where I'm still healing up. Not a drop of rain all the time I was out, but just a few minutes after arriving home the first drops came although that soon stopped and we've just had a drab day with occasional drizzle.

Nothing like the drizzle at the end of this quirky vid ....