Hooded Merganser at Whetsted

Wow!

Cliffe warming up and urban flora lecture

A fair walk through the middle of Cliffe to the viewpoint at Flamingo was enjoyable for both Monty and myself at lunchtime, which was followed by a trip up to Birkbeck for a lecture on the wonders of the urban flora to feed the mind, to make another great day!

Common Gulls. On the bridge "over the Kwai", there were two Common Gulls, Larus canus, and two black-headed gulls, Chroicocephalus ridibundus. The two Common Gulls were nicely showing the bright white on the trailing edge of the wings, and the white tertial crescent, as well as the white mirror segments on the black wingtips.

The Common Gull to the right has a darker head, and less clear white spotting on the black wing tips. If it might be possible to persuade myself that there are dark marks on the wings themselves, then perhaps it could be a second year winter bird?

Black-Headed Gulls. The settled bird of the two Black-Headed Gulls here is turning dark on the head as it develops its breeding plumage, nicely showing the white eyelids more visible to the rear of the eye. The flying bird, about to land and decelerating sharply, does not appear to be so well advanced, but does show the wing patterns quite well, the dark "shadow" on the underside, the black-tipped primaries, the bright white triangle and front edge to the wings. There is also a dark mark at the front of the upper wing that might indicate a second winter bird as opposed to an adult bird.

And these other two birds seems to be mutually displaying to the other. According to BWP this could perhaps be "The Forward Posture", bird flat with spread scapulars, neck kinked and head held forward (although difficult to tell if the tail is flattened), generally a symbol of aggression often alternately shown by the two opponents, more commonly on the water (e.g. swimming towards opponent) than on land. A web source from a Dutch "larophile" says that it may also be part of courtship if the birds are parallel to each other, which doesn't seem to be the case here. This display itself may therefore be nothing to do with the season!

In his book The Animal in Its World, Niko Tinbergen characterizes this type of behavior as a ‘spacing-out’ display or ‘threat’ display, directed at opponents with the aim to move them away or to stop their advance.
The last picture also seems to involve mutual ritualistic postures, with spread scapulars retained, a little more like "The Upright Posture" or "The Oblique Posture", although I can't identify it exactly. One thing I can't sort out is that it doesn't look aggressive, and the birds are close together in this last shot.

However that may be, I also think that the birds' beaks are losing their red colour and becoming darker, almost black at a distance. In addition at least one of the bird's head is beginning to darken. Spring, I think, is still on the way!

Urban flora lecture. The wall bedstraw, Galium parisiense, was found in a front garden just by Gloucester Road tube station, and is a rare plant of poor ground and urban as well as rural areas.

Oare marshes in the iron grip

This drake shoveller shows the wing pattern quite well!

Access trail

Nothing much to report today, and no photos, but a really nice walk around the access trail. Better light than yesterday, and it was still light after five as well. Great tits, blue tits, long-tailed tits, blackbirds, robins, fieldfare, chaffinch. The Great tits and the Blue tits were singing as the sun set.

Snowy Hadlow

Down at the sewage farm the black-headed gulls were making their usual racket. Once again the quickfix button was required to get the muddiness out of the photos. This is an adult-plumaged bird in flight, with a first (or second - see below??) winter bird at rest behind it:

Here you can see a clearly first winter bird on the right, an adult bird on the left, and an intermediate in between. This intermediate plumage bird could just possibly be a second winter bird, 5% of which are supposed to have gained their grey wings but still have some brown patches on the tertials, although these do seem rather large brown patches, compared to the books!

Here is an adult-plumaged bird checking out the filter bed:

A good view of the "adult" underwing pattern:

And here are two yellow wagtails, only just visible as blurs as they are put up by the gulls, but clearly recognisable all the same. One of the birds can be seen at rest on a rail in a couple of other photos, more or less in the same place.

Lower Temperatures at Lower Halstow

As the temperature dropped to near freezing before the first serious threat of snowfall this winter I went back to the Lower Halstow walk I did with Geoff Orton of the the Kent Wildlife Trust back in the late autumn of 2011. There were many dog-walkers, but still plenty of birds out on the mud, with quite a few Dunlin, Calidris alpina, fairly close in.

The use of quick fix enhancement really raises the contrast on these pictures, which look very muddy without it! You can see the eye stripe on some of the Dunlin, but perhaps not so easily in this enhanced picture.

Whetsted Gravel Pits

Chaffinches, Blackbirds, Goldfinches on the way by Victoria Road and Kelchers, 3 Great Tits, 1 Blue Tit, 1 Green Woodpecker, 5 Mute Swans on the field. 120+ Greylag geese, including 3+ several farmyard hybrids, 1 Great Crested Grebe, 2 + 5 Black-headed Gulls, 2+ Blackbirds, 3 Blue Tits, 1 Great Tit, 1 Woodpigeon, 1 headbobbing drake + 1 duck Mallard, 2 + 2 Tufted Duck, 2 + 10 Pochard, 52 Coot, some necksliding, 6+ Little Grebe, 2 Cormorant, 2 Grey Heron, 9 Greylag geese, 2 Great Crested Grebe, 1 developing breeding plumage, 5 + 76 Black-headed Gulls, 7 + 11 Tufted Duck, 62 Coot, 18 Cormorant developing breeding plumages, 19 + 16 Gadwall, 1 drake Goosander, 3 Common Gulls, 1 Herring Gull, 4 adult + 3 juvenile Swans.