Fungi on the way to the Gravel Pits

The last minute fungi dash to reproduce continues to impress! In the field of seedling wheat to the North of the East lock, an impressive cluster of small mushrooms has recently appeared.

By the tall hedge that crossed the footpath in the meadow to the South of the East Lock, a clump of what looked like some Pholiota have shot up - but I soon realised my mistake I forgot to get a spore print of last weeks finds, despite my iSpot promise!

Golden beaches at Pensarn

After a very blowy and not very bird-rich visit to Conwy birds reserve, Monty and I went on to the various coastal viewpoints at Llandulas and Pensarn.

There were some good views of gulls at Pensarn itself, which has the most amazing beach, miles of golden sands below the stony foreshore.

This is a black-headed gull, Chroicocephalus ridibundus, close to the car on the stony higher part of the shore. It's worth expanding this photo, as it's a really smart bird close to, with a very delicate grey on its upperparts, a pure white on its underparts, black on the wings with small white spots, and a red base to the beak and orange-red legs. Notice also the white ring immediately around part of the eye. In winter the brownish head cap is lost to be replaced by these dark vertical stripes on the head, very variable from bird to bird.

The word ridibundus means laughing, in relation to its harsh call. A sociable bird very commonly found inland, migratory or resident in the UK, that takes two years to get to maturity, and may then be very long-lived - for example one bird is said to have lived for 63 years!

Spotted at Cliffe!

As Paula left for work I walked down to the village car park to collect the car, abandoned there after an informal parish heads meeting to consider the Youth Club lease last night. It was a misty morning, dank and drear and definitely off-putting, with little chance of an enjoyable walk, let alone any bird-watching - see the Pittswood blog for an even more depressed view of the day and its bird watching potential in Hadlow. So what to do instead?

Naturally I ended up sitting in an office in the College doing gentle and mundane administrative work. I'd gone in fairly quickly after a couple of simple parish jobs, particularly as it was such a misty day and its really not so stupid to be in College if it keeps me from putting the heating on at home! I may have to find another computer to work on though, as I don't want to outstay my welcome with the horticulture team.

At about 11, I looked out of the window and noticed the sun had just appeared - bird-watching could be on the agenda again! So I went back home, checked the post, did a couple more minor parish things, and set off for Cliffe Pools with Monty.

Only when I arrived did I think to check the tide-tables, to find out I'd missed high tide by about two hours. The first birdwatching couple I met told me how good it had been on Flamingo as the high tide had driven the birds off the river and onto Flamingo and the other pools. If I'd checked the tables first thing this morning I could have had that experience myself! Curses, I said to myself, and Monty and I set off to make the best of a bad job! The weather was still fair, no complaints for the back end of November, but it was no longer sunny and had clouded over with a degree of emphasis - it clearly wasn't going to improve again!

We went fairly directly to my favourite bench overlooking the new beach at Flamingo, and Monty was very good, keeping to the path - more or less. The remaining flowers along the route were looking fairly sorry for themselves, and there were no insects around, with very few passerines. The Pochard and Tufted Duck on Conoco were making a good show however - they are such lovely animals, both of them.

There wasn't a great deal around but there were some lapwings showing well on the far side of the new beach, together with a couple of what turned out to be Golden Plover, and three Common Redshank. It was nice to spend some time thinking of the Golden/Grey differences, and I also had a good luck at the Coots, Mallard, Little Egrets, Lapwings, Golden Plover and other Redshanks over at the far side opposite the bench. In retrospect I realised that I did spend quite a bit of time looking at a rather taller, more delicate, faster moving and actively feeding Redshank. Perhaps it was even more grey than brown as well - but that's hindsight! Once I had seen its red legs I simply asked no more questions!

After a while I thought I'd move on, gathered up everything, slung the 'scope over my shoulder (I've decided its not worth putting the scope into the rucksack at Cliffe), and walked up the path with the beach petering out a short distance away on my right. Just then I noticed two Redshanks together, just on the edge of the beach.

One seemed a bit lighter in colour and more elegant - thinner and taller than the first - they just looked different - but both had orange-red legs! At last I thought of Spotted Redshank as a possible and got the telescope out. The taller one was a bit lighter and perhaps a little speckly, although not convincingly so, seemed to have a distinct white eyestripe and darker legs. This was a definite - maybe - possibility!
And then the possibility vanished somewhere under the nearside bank of the little stream. I didn't see it fly off, but this seemed a likely outcome. The other bird remained and I got the birdguide out - YES - the characters I had noted so far fitted for the absent bird. It could be worth a little patience, so I settled down to wait quietly for a bit - you never know! I started to take some pictures of what I now thought of as likely to be a Common Redshank, Tringa.

This one shows the shortish beak, red at the base, the overall brown-grey, including the quite smudgey breast, and the relative lack of an eyestripe, so that the white eye-ring shows clearly.

Here with the bird looking directly at me a whitish supercilium streak can be seen, but its not very distinct. Looking at the beak from the front and top you can see the reddish tinge to the bill where it joins the face.

The bird was quite actively feeding.

Here, taken another second later, it almost looks as though it is spitting the excess water out!

Here is a reasonable shot of the suspected Spotted Redshank, Tringa erythropus.

and here is a shot looking directly at me, in which you can see a very clear supercilium stripe on either side of the face, forming a "white eyebrows" effect.

Whetsted Gravel pits in the murk

The heavy mist made conventional bird watching impossible this morning, but there were lots of compensations as I listened as carefully as I could for birdsong.

Monty me several very pleasant dogs on the walk down to the East Lock, where we also ran into Tom and his Labrador, to Monty's great delight.

I edged out towards my vantage point at the first pit and looked for dragonfly cast skins (exuviae) on the right hand posts along the first causeway - absolutely none to be found. I may have cleared some of them a few months ago, but I wonder how long they last on such posts - do they get washed off?

As the mist was showing no sign of dispersing I put Monty on the lead and headed back to the Medway through the sheep field, trying to take care not to spook the animals. I got to the river having gradually shifted the rather large and dignified sheep off my path, and away from a couple of their favourite salt licks.
On the way back along the banks Medway the sun suddenly broke through, so I reconsidered, and changed course to return to the Gravel Pits. As I tacked diagonally South across Poor's Meadow I came to the southern margin of the field and into the shaw along the banks of the stream. Here I looked at a number of fungi, including this moderately small sized one, several of which were found on a horizontal rotting trunk, most likely an Ash, Fraxinus excelsior.

Its worth looking closely at the detail of the cap while its still attached to the trunk and before I touched it. Fairly obvious and apparent was the clearer white of the edge of the cap. It was this that first led me towards a species of Crepidotus, as this last feature was clear in the photograph of Crepidotis mollis (Schaeff.) Staude in Roger Phillips, and on several photos on the web. However there is a difficulty with this most apparently likely species, which is described as an ochre brown, with a grey-brown margin, striate (do they just mean on the margin?), gelatinous, although drying near-white. Although the cap is very white, it does perhaps look striate overall, and the fibres appear as a darker network at the left hand side, as if perhaps it was in the process of darkening further.

The same sort of pattern can be seen in the picture below. Somewhat more reassuring, there is a fuzziness dorsally to the point of attachment. This is also seen in many pictures on the internet that are said to be of C. mollis..

However there is another possible issue. Most species in the genus are characterised by having either no stem, or at most a rudimentary one. The only exception to this is C. applanatus, which appears too small and delicate to be a possibility.

In this specific example I would say there is at least a rudimentary stem, as seen here with the cap turned over. The cap has not been moved far - you can see where the stem was attached to the bare wood from which it was growing out. Personally I do now think (I have persuaded myself?) that this attachment is limited enough to be described as rudimentary, but it all depends on the definition you use! And it is beginning to have quite a Crepidotus look about it! Perhaps even an almost light pinkish colour to the gills, as in the Phillips picture, if not the description, which is cinnamon?

Well, to advance, I'm going to have to follow up! I shall put it up for the I-Spot system to tear my ideas to shreds, and I shall also try to return to the site in a couple of days to check the colour, and perhaps collect material that might produce a spore print.

Rye Harbour at dusk

After spending the bulk of the afternoon strimming the boat spaces at the sailing club, I headed off South into East Sussex to Rye Harbour to have a look at the new Nature Reserve facilities there.

I was able to take Monty out on the shingle paths and he had an absolutely great time rushing about. As the paths have been separated from the bird areas by pig netting, the dogs get their exercise while the birds are protected from grievous trespass by them!

On the other side of the River Rother the visitors were walking along the beach by the sand dunes

This side of the river the bank is almost entirely shingle, always such a beautiful mix of colours

The shingle is covered by last season's Sea Kale,

The area has always had to be guarded against invasion, while its various shorelines have extended gradually out to see. The latest time of trial was the Second World War, and the pill-boxes remain scattered about the nature reserve to the present day.

Eventually Monty and I reached the far hides, and I chose the one with the setting sun behind it, to try to get a few last minute photos. The islands in the scrape were crowded with lapwings, Vanellus vanellus. Later I saw one Redshank, Tringa and a lovely pair of Little Grebes, Podiceps, just under the windows of the hide itself.

Behind them were about a hundred plovers, which I though might have been Golden Plovers, but couldn't be sure. Further back were hundreds of Herring Gulls and Lesser Black Backed Gulls.

Spotted later on in the middle of the photo were a single Shelduck and one Oystercatcher. Can you spot them?

Here is the sunset over the Lower Greensand cliffs by Hastings. What a great hour down by the sea. I really can't understand any more why people need to travel further than the boundaries of the UK - I won't have enough time to see everything that needs to be seen in Kent, let alone the rest of England, let alone the rest of Britain!

Cliffe pools at low tide, Mid-November

The weather was really rather good again today, with spells of reasonable sunshine and warm and dry whether the sun was shining or not. Common Darter, hoverflies, bee? Lots of LBJs, good numbers of pochard, tufted duck, little grebes, great crested grebes, coot, little egrets, grey herons, redshank, lapwings.
The dredger Antwerpen was off-loading at a rate of knots, and you can see the dredgings being fed from the stern.

and they are then fed up the escalator to be dumped in windrows

Along the seawall, there was a good crop of shaggy inkcaps, Coprinus comatus, of which I took one picture of a youngish head:

On the way back to the car, by one of the access gate-bars, I came across a hoverfly concentrating on a few flowers, which might be a Platycheirus, possibly Platycheirus albimanus. The combination of grey spots and a small dark body points towards the greyer marked species of Platycheirus, and the black shiny thorax with an accompanying black scutellum is a fairly diagnostic cross-check that it really is Platycheirus, characteristics shared only with Melanostoma and Chamaesyrphus. Another nice point is the wing venation, with the long light brown stigma, clearly visible on the front margin of the wing (see further down below).

This sighting, together with another unidentified Syrphid patrolling a territory on the path, was really great as I had thought that the hoverfly season was pretty nearly finished, and I haven't been able to photograph any hoverflies for weeks. I therefore tried to catch this Platycheirus hovering in front of the flower:

It was clearly grey spotted, and a female. The overall shape and pattern looks pretty good for P. albimanus overall. However a word of caution here - the unsettled nature of the taxonomy of this genus, and the overall similarity of the females in general makes this identification a matter of probabilities rather than certainties and therefore somewhat tenuous.

The sternites, overall pattern and face shape seem to fit the pictures on the web - "Wild in Denmark" is a brilliant site for this sort of comparison, with really detailed pictures. The mid and front femora more or less fit available web pictures, but not fully, nor the description in Stubbs & Falk. I would have expected to see a bit more lightness and a clearer orange in these limbs. However this may be partly due to the lateness of the season. If this is a third brood individual, then it may be expected to develop darker shades in the lower temperatures available at the larval and pupal stages.

There are a number of other issues with the identification. The abdomen of this insect is quite swollen, and apparently much contracted in relation to the length of the wings. The wings therefore seem 20% longer than the abdomen. I have seen neither of these features in any of the photographs available on the web. The legs are also proportionately long and spindly. Again I realise what poor photos these are in relation to many others available, and I do wonder whether I should make more use of the tripod in this sort of situation. Incidentally, in the next photo there also seems to be a flea beetle buried head down in the flower:

In the next picture the light brown stigmas are clearly visible, which seem to be seen in most of the web pictures I have seen. Although not in the diagnostic keys, these are useful cross-check features - its always reassuring to find such useful characteristics borne out in practical identification.

17 Celsius at Whetsted Gravel Pits

An amazingly lovely warm day, with dragonflies, a butterfly and other insects on the wing, with small wasps or bees pollinating the resurgent Bristly Oxtongue.

There were a lot of people around enjoying the countryside. There were local dog walkers and strollers on the land, and there were boaters on the water, together with canoeists involved in some long distance race up the river.

and the lock itself was busy

In a more relaxed view, there was a leisure canoeist on the lower stage

and a quiet fisherman by the rushing spillpool

There were also leisure planes and helicopters using the skies

Despite the unseasonal warmth of the day, the seasons were rolling on and the recent rainfall had stimulated at least some late fungal fruiting bodies, even in the arable field of wheat above the Lock

On the way down to the lock there was an unidentified butterfly by the crossing hedge (its nearly the middle of November!) and there were still good numbers of Common Darters Sympetrum striolatum by the gravel pits.

Most of the Darters had found some warm wood to sun themselves on, but others were on dried leaves and vegetation on the ground, like this one on the bank of the Hammer Dyke

They were mainly males (I think I saw about 5), but there were also a couple of females, like this one by the tall hedge between the pits

There were good numbers of small wasps or bees pollinating the Bristly Oxtongue, Picris echioides,

These two close ups show one of the wasps or bees covered in pollen. If pollination is successful, will the seeds have time to form and ripen from these flowers I wonder?

This Common Ragwort, Senecio jacobaea, was also being pollinated, but this time by opportunistic flies

The birds on the gravel pits were generally peaceful (although some disturbance or other drove the cormorants, Phalacrocorax carbo, and lapwings, Vanellus vanellus, from the East pit to the West pit during the course of the visit). Here is a Great Crested Grebe, Podiceps cristatus playing about on the West pit

Total bird list for the day was 1 Canada Goose, Branta canadensis, 90+ Greylag Geeses, Anser anser, 45+ Gadwall, Anas strepera, 18+ Tufted Duck, Aythya fuligula, 16+ Mallard, Anas platyrynchos, 6 Shoveller, Anas clypeata, 5 Great Crested Grebe, Podiceps cristatus, 14 Little Grebe, Tachybaptus ruficollis, 60+ Lapwing, Vanellus vanellus, 4 Common Gull, Larus canus, 110+ Black-Headed Gulls, Chroicocephalus ridibundus, 5 Herring Gull, Larus argentatus, 90+ Coot, Fulica atra, 3 Grey Heron, Ardea cinerea, 16 Cormorant, Phalacrocorax carbo, 30 Starling, Sturnus vulgaris, 3+ Carrion Crows, Corvus corone, 8+ Blackbirds, Turdus merula, 14+ Fieldfares, Turdus pilaris, and 1 Grey Wagtail, Motacilla cinerea, by the East Lock.

Lower Halstow walk led by Geoff Orton

A slightly dismal morning didn't dampen our spirits as 30+ of us gathered at the the old Brickworks to be led by Geoff along the seawall in an KWT walk, an exploration of the waterfowl and waders of the North Kent coast.

We learnt about the long history of the large number of brickworks in North Kent and other areas, which produced the yellow brown "London Stock Bricks", which lasted until the "igneous" clays of the Midland or Flettons that contained 5% lignite, sufficient to replace 75% of the energy needed to produce the bricks, came into use, greatly reducing the costs of brick production. However Flettons are porous and therefore unsuitable for heavy loads or external use, so it may be a bit more complex than this.

We also learnt about the Thames barges trading along the North Kent coast, and saw several examples during the day, including the excellent Edith May.

I was fascinated by the story of the Dark-bellied Brent Geese flying the two thousand miles from Siberia to winter here after their short and difficult breeding efforts. In good "Lemming" years they get a chance to produce a lot of young birds and bring them with them, but when Lemmings are in short supply, the Artic Foxes get very hungry and increase their predation upon the eggs and goslings, so that few if any birds are produced to reach the UK in that particular year.

The bird list for the day at Lower Halstow was 1 female Marsh Harrier, Circus aeruginosus, 150+ Dark Bellied Brent Geese, Branta barnicla bernicla, 20+ Mallard, Anas platyrynchos, 10+ Teal, Anas crecca, 15+ Wigeon, Anas penelope, 6 Shoveller, Anas clypeata, 20+ Shelduck, Tadorna tadorna, 1 Great Crested Grebe, Podiceps cristatus, 60+ Black(?)-Tailed Godwit, Limosa limosa, 100+ Redshank, Tringa totanus, 3 Curlew, Numenius arquata, 200 Dunlin, Calidris alpina, 2 Oystercatcher, Haematopus ostralegus, 50+ Lapwing, Vanellus vanellus, 7 Grey Plovers, Pluvialis squatarola, 40+ Ringed Plovers, Charadrius hiaticula, 4 Common Gull, Larus canus, 20+ Black-Headed Gulls, Chroicocephalus ridibundus, 10+ Coot, Fulica atra, 1 Grey Heron, Ardea cinerea, 7+ Little Egret, Egretta garzetta, 30 Starling, Sturnus vulgaris, 10+ Carrion Crows, Corvus corone, 8+ Blackbirds, Turdus merula, 8+ Fieldfares, Turdus pilaris, 5 Chaffinches, Fringilla coelebs, 3 House Sparrows, Passer domesticus.

Also 1 Red Admiral, Vanessa atalanta, fluttering low along the seawall, heading South for sunnier climes, by accident or design. I'm not sure if this one is going to make it to the Med, it may have left it too late, unless its lucky with some late flowers and rotting fruit!

The bird list for the day at Oare Marshes was 20+ Mallard, Anas platyrynchos, 100+ Teal, Anas crecca, 20+ Wigeon, Anas penelope, 10+ Shoveller, Anas clypeata, 10+ Shelduck, Tadorna tadorna, 5 Pintail, Anas acuta, 150+ Black(?)-Tailed Godwit, Limosa limosa, 100+ Redshank Tringa totanus, (could have been some Spotted Redshank, Tringa erythropus, among them if the experts on the KOS site were correct), 100+ Lapwing, Vanellus vanellus, 10 Golden(?) Plovers, Pluvialis apricaria, 10+ Black-Headed Gulls, Chroicocephalus ridibundus, 4 Coot, Fulica atra, 1 Moorhen, Gallinula chloropus, 1 Grey Heron, Ardea cinerea, 2 Little Egret, Egretta garzetta, 20 Starling, Sturnus vulgaris.

I missed out on the two or three Little Stints which have been spotted over the last few days, and I think I should have been there at High Tide for them!

Dank and drear at Cliffe Pools

Got to Cliffe at just after 2 p.m. and we took the central track after Monty had disgraced himself by eating most of the large bread chunks a couple had scattered in the car park as bait - of course I apologised most profusely but I'm secretly not that sorry for the birds' sake!

Far too dark for photographs all day, low tide perhaps I thought (I was wrong, it was only 2 hours after high tide), and rather few birds around overall. It was a bit breezy and chilly sitting at the flamingo Viewpoint. However there were loads of gorgeous Pochard on the Conoco Pools, together with the normal Coot, Mallard, Great Crested Grebes, Little Grebes and Black Headed Gulls. There was one possible Teal. A Cormorant and a Redshank overflew, with several large gulls I didn't even try to identify.

At Flamingo, the patch of mud certainly seemed bigger after news of recent supplementation by dredging operations, and at least some of the birds might have been a bit nearer. Lapwing, Black-tailed Godwits, Redshank, 1 Grey Plover, Mallard in pairs or groups, Great Crested Grebes, Little Grebes, Black Headed Gulls and a couple of Little Egrets with 2 Grey Heron were seen. Starlings joined the Lapwings on the mud, and a few more flocks wheeled like smoke in the distance. More cormorants and gulls overflew. On the causeway towards Radar we saw and heard a group of Fieldfares, together with a couple of blackbirds and robins, but the rest were just LBJs in the poor light.

At Radar Pools, more Lapwing, Mallard, some Shelduck, a few Tufted Duck, Great Crested Grebes, Little Grebes and a couple more Little Egrets were picked up, but the light was very poor by now, the brightest things were the remaining flowers of both species of Oxtongues, so off we trotted (wounded foot permitting) back to the car and shopping at Asda's Kings Hill superstore! I would like some Delia Smith cooking books for Christmas I think, I've got an odd desire from somewhere to cook Lancashire Hotpot tonight.

Whetsted Gravel Pits

After a day in College I got out late walking towards the pits. There wasn't much about but the forage beans were emerging on the "halved" field on the way down.

Things were fairly quiet on the first pit, but I did put up a nice Grey Heron (out of a pair found there) which was reluctant to abandon the causeway to me and perched on a fence post for a while.

before eventually flying off,

The second pit was almost equally quiet, short of many of the ducks, geese and gulls that had been there the other day. However there were 38 Lapwing and a single Grey Heron on the central shallow roost.

Total estimates of bird numbers for the day were 6 (plus 1 juvenile) mute swans, 80+ coot, 3 greylag geese, 11 tufted ducks, 50+ gadwall, 2 mallard, 3 great crested grebes, 8 little grebes, 4 black-headed gulls, 3 grey herons, 38 lapwing, 1 green woodpecker, 2 fieldfares, 1 blackbird.

Fungi and Leaf Miners at Dene Park

Arriving at Dene Park I took some photos of the mines and galls on the herbaceous plants along the entrance path.

I dived into the first compartment planted up mainly with Beech and had a look at some of the dramatic green islands caused by either galls or leaf miners on the leaves. The first was caused by the Beech Leaf Gall Midge Hartigiola annulipes, Hartig 1839, a cecidyomiid midge. The galls are up to 5 mm in height, and in my limited experience nice and fluffy, although the "tree-trees website" claims it can be bare as well as fluffy. They are generally found next to a midrib or a main vein, which may allow them some control over the transport of nutrients as well as the hormonal status of the tissues around it. The gall could well be releasing cytokinins, both to cause the hypertrophy leading to the gall itself, and to cause the green island effect in the otherwise senescing leaves.

The next
As I was going through the central path, following a small valley through some scrubby trees and some oaks, I heard a bird calling quite loudly skreek-skreek-skreek. I couldn't think what it was - not a tit, finch or thrush that I could think of.

The idea that it might be a nuthatch came into my mind, and I saw a bird high up in the tall oaks which looked roughly the right size, although I couldn't get any idea of shape. I checked what I could remember of the sound that night against the call of the Eurasian Nuthatch, Sitta europea, Linnaeus 1758, on Xeno-canto, and I think I must have been right. This was the closest I found to my memory of the call, recorded by Stuart Fisher at Gomshall, Surrey in 2005. The subspecies found in the UK is ssp caesia.

What a nice tick for me in these woods! This not an uncommon bird in the UK, with 20,000+ pairs and numbers generally on the up. It feeds on insects and nuts/seeds and is one of the prettiest UK birds.
Monty does his own exploring while I look for galls or whatever else is around, but he is never too far away and always comes when whistled. Trying to be objective he often looks quite a serious solid dog in photos, but these don't seem to give the full picture of his playfulness and agility in real life. I am so lucky to have him as a companion.

The False Chanterelle

Walked around Dene Park in the gloomy evening today. It was so dark and dank, I didn't even bother to take the camera. Heard the Tawny Owl(s?) and the geese but not much else. Monty had a very good run through the woods while I stuck to the increasingly muddy tracks.

Attended the Low Carbon Group in the evening, and we talked about the "beautiful" orange mushrooms that had appeared on the compost in one of the cycle planters. The group were a little concerned about unauthorised eating, so I took a couple home, and they were indeed the False Chanterelle, Hygrophoropsis aurantiaca (Wulfen) Maire 1921.

Considered by some to be edible, by others too bitter to eat, all sources agreed that they could cause some alarming hallucinogenic symptoms in some individuals, so they will be removed before they are tasted by someone!

Characteristics were the overall orange rather than egg-yolk colour, decurrent and repeatedly dividing gills, as opposed to veins, and a good mushroomy rather than a fruity smell. The cap top is often darker in the centre and finely woolly all over (feels soft and velvety), with a thin(?) skin that could be peeled back in places, the cap often remaining inrolled to maturity. Associated with conifers and heathlands, this could reflect the origin of some of the compost components in the planter, such as spruce bark for example. The season fits, as the books have it as appearing from August to November,

Whetsted Gravel Pits

The weather was overcast with a cool breeze today, but no threat of rain. It certainly felt autumnal, a feeling emphasised by the fireworks over the last few nights, celebrating Guy Fawkes infamous attempt at mass murder.

In the late morning Monty and I headed off down to the Gravel Pits, to see whether the waterfowl were concentrating inland yet in preparation for the hard weather. There were a lot of dog-walkers and other people out enjoying the countryside on the way down to the River at East Lock, but not everybody crosses the river and gets as far as the pits themselves, and the ducks and gulls seemed fairly undisturbed when I arrived. Monty had done a lot of running about by then, and I felt justified in putting him on a lead when I got to the causeway, in order to prevent him jumping into the peaceful quiet ditch and the shallow gravel pit and scaring the birds.

The waterfowl is building up very nicely on the two large pits that I can look at!

The first photo is of a fairly close mute swan, Cygnus olor, which came out quite well, using ISO 2000 to give a very quick exposure of 1/1250th of a second which reduces camera shake and at an aperture of f11 to give a good depth of exposure. The resulting noise from the high ISO doesn't matter too much at this limited degree of cropping!

This mallard duck, Anas platyrynchos, is right on the far side of the first gravel pit, and the picture has been cropped much more heavily than the picture of the swan, so it is much more at risk of noise from the high ISO, which can be seen. I did need this ISO, as even with this I was only getting 1/640th (just above spec. for the lens used to keep shake under control) at f8, just sufficient for the depth of field required. Using the telescope on the tripod to steady the camera did help to reduce the risk of camera shake, and overall I was very pleased with this attempt.

This Little Grebe, Tachybaptus ruficollis, is at a closer distance than the Mallard, but the picture has been more heavily cropped, and shows the downside of noise and perhaps some camera shake. The picture is here to compare sizes of the grebe and coot (although the grebe is further away) but also because the coot is waggling something about in its bill - it seemed to do this for some time. Again I was quite pleased with picture overall. The ISO 2000 gave me a 1/1000th exposure with an f8 aperture, although the depth of field might perhaps have been a bit poor, with the centre of the focus being on the grebe, leaving the coot slightly out of focus.

There was a small flock of chaffinches, Fringilla coelebs, feeding off the seed heads on the causeway, and this female returned to the fence fairly close by and stayed long enough for me to get a reasonable shot. Again I think the high ISO helped, giving 1/640th at f8, although it could be easy to overdo it.

This juvenile swan has been diving after vegetation and water is still dripping from his beak. The picture is helped by the rapid exposure of 1/800th, again forced by the high ISO.

After checking out the first pit, I collected Monty and we moved on to the second pit, where I think we disturbed the Greylag Geese from the central gull roost. By the time I got the camera out, the geese had gone off to join the others on the far bank. The gulls on the roost were undisturbed and were almost entirely black-headed gulls, Chroicocephalus ridibundus, but noticeable by their size, there were a couple of adult and juvenile herring gulls, Larus argentatus, mixed into the crowd.

I've been looking for a Common Gull, Larus canus, for some time now, in amongst the others. One reason for my failure has perhaps been my lack of concentration on the identification features of the different stages and plumages. One characteristic of the winter plumage which hadn't really occurred to me is that Common Gulls have a greyish hood at this time of year.

While looking at this character in the book that evening, I realised that I had seen a similar hooded bird in the photos I had taken today. I have always in this past assumed this to be the rather similar hood of the developing black head of the black headed gull, but I looked through the photos again, and found several of the same grey hooded bird in flight. They were completely ambiguous about the identity of the gull - it could equally well have been black-headed, or common, or another gull altogether.

And then - Eureka!! I got a picture of the same bird still in flight, still showing the slight hood, but this time clearly showing the significant bright white "mirrors" embedded in the black wing tips on the upper side of the wings - on a bird this size these are fairly diagnostic of my FIRST definitely identified Common Gull! What a lucky shot!

All this progress is down to doing this blog, and going carefully over the material for it - its definitely improving my identification of all sorts of organisms. what a great picture, even if its cropped to very fuzzy limits.

Now that I've got my eye in, I'm sure there were other common gulls there. Here is a possible, perched on this front post, in front of a black headed gull scratching itself in the first picture. Common Gulls (38 - 43 cm) are larger than the black-headed (35 - 38), but smaller than the herring gulls (53 - 59), although sizes can be tricky to judge. The first picture was at ISO 250, the next at ISO 2000, and the last at ISO 6500. I can't say they were comparable because of variable vegetation blocking the view in the forefront, but on the other hand I can't see that the ultra-high ISO value is causing me such problems that I cannot identify the bird. In all three shots I used the telescope to steady the camera.

The next three photos of a black-headed gull are very heavy crops at ISOs 2000 (1/800th), 6500 (1/1600th) and 200 (1/250th), the last showing movement - this is why it is so necessary to avoid these slower exposures at longer distances. Using a sufficient ISO to give an exposure of 1/500th to 1/1000th seems sensible, without any need to over-egg the pudding further.

Walking along the causeway of the second pit I was delighted to see some Hawkweed Oxtongue, Picris hieracioides, still in flower, amongst the declining Bristly Oxtongue.

Here is a Black-Headed gull in flight, to compare the upper wing pattern with that of the Common Gull

and to show the dark under wing

On the way back to the car and home, there were still loads of things to look out for and think about. These look like Horse Mushrooms, Agaricus sp. in the middle of the germinating wheat crop

The Ivy, Hedera helix, flowers in the hedgerows are now nearly all gone, and berrying up for the winter. I'm not sure if they are popular with the birds

On the other hand I do know how popular the Hawthorn, Crataegus monogyna, berries are!

One tired, and very serious looking, but satisfied dog, at the end of a good walk! What an excellent job he has done today, as always, exploring the countryside, checking it out, leading and guarding me - and he takes these responsibilities very seriously indeed!

The Pedunculate Oak trees, Quercus robur, are still holding their leaves in the autumnal landscape

I'm still not sure why this field has been sown in two separate halves, but it may become clearer at harvest next summer

Total estimates of bird numbers for the day were 6 (plus 1 juvenile) mute swans, 3 cormorants, 90+ coot, c. 200 greylag geese, 5 tufted ducks, 40+ gadwall, 16+ shoveller, 5 mallard, 3 great crested grebes, 9 little grebes, 80 black-headed gulls, 3 herring gulls, 1 green woodpecker, 9 fieldfares.