Reculver in a Force Five

Great sight of the Dark-bellied Brents flying past out to sea, they are such wonderful animals.

The second bird here MIGHT be a first year, just getting a white v-shaped collar, but still (maybe) with the whitish barring on the flanks. 

Here is a link to an excellent video of a juvenile bird, taken in October 2011, before the white collar develops in mid winter. The white edges to the greater coverts seem very visible, and the generally browner tinges to the dark upper parts. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KhILLrcXo_w

A slightly warmer Leybourne

A lovely, still slightly sunny, and only moderately cold afternoon as I arrived, but the light and brightness went after about 3:30, leaving the underlying greyness.

There were Mallard in the small stream downstream of the bridge on the other side of the feeding area, possibly with some hybridisation - the body plumage is way off typical!

The same drake is now on the left, pointing right, and a completely different hybrid is centre top, with totally different plumage, and a female to the right.

The new hybrid flaps vigorously, perhaps to show off to the female, his irridescence picking up the sun!

Here is yet a third hybrid drake, with a brown "unsleeked" head.

Plenty of Black-headed Gulls, Coots, some Moorhens, Mute Swans, Mallard and various hybrid ducks, one Muscovy Duck but unusually no Greylag Geese (that I saw) were at the feeding area. Further along a Little Grebe whiffled across the North End of the Ocean, where there were a pair of Great Crested Grebe, with newly developing crests.

There were some Herring Gulls of different ages mixed in with the Black-headed Gulls, Coots and Tufted Ducks across the Ocean. These are first winter or (more likely I think from the light colours of the wings and back, and the relative lack of black on the beak) second winter birds.

And here is an adult on a fairly distant yellow buoy against the sun.

This is first winter Black-headed Gull, on the bright yellow buoy. Brown primaries and coverts have persisted since fledging, orange beaks and legs, and a dark bar near the end of the tail.

A Great Tit sang from the willows at the start of the channel path. Further along two Canada Geese were in the channel, with a moorhen very close by. The goose on the right is probably a first year bird with the duller colours on the head. The patterns on the flanks may be different as well.

Two or three Herring Gulls were in amongst the Black-headed Gulls on Larkfield Lake. Some of the Black-headed Gulls (at least the three in this photo) were "washing their wings" it appeared. I've not noticed this behaviour before.

and then they dipped their heads in:

I got some record shots of Tufted Ducks here as well.

including one looking as though it was still in moult - a Juvenile bird perhaps?

A Song Thrush scuttled across the Marsh, together with several Blackbirds. As I turned back I flushed a pair of Mallard from the Marsh stream.

The Long-tailed Tits, and one Blue Tit were in the Alders as I skirted the North end of the Ocean on my return journey. Blackbirds were also regularly flushed, giving their alarm calls as the flew off.

A Cormorant flew over. There was one Great Crested Grebe by the feeding area, diving for weed I think. 

Frosty grey Leybourne

A pair of Shoveller on the Northwestern corner of Roaden Island Lake 

Icy Reculver and a Short-eared Owl

Definitely a frigid day at Reculver at the end of the afternoon (I only got back to the car just after 5 pm, proper dark), with a bit of a go with the 500 mm lens and the EOS350. Both Monty and I hoping to get back to our longer walks from now on - but will I get the marking done if I lose my marking focus??

A Short-eared Owl, Asio flammeus, flushed across the oyster marsh channels, was beautiful, very long-winged and ghostly. I saw the large pale grey-brown bird, with very long wings in comparison with its body, floating over the channels and banks,  Maybe the second bird I have seen, I remember seeing Short-eared (I think) Owls with Phil down at Rye Harbour, many years ago.

In the first picture you can easily see the pale belly and underside behind the dark "head" region, one of the main characters that separates Short-eared from Long-eared (description applies to the nominate Eurasian race). Long-eared Owls have a dark belly, that continues on from the head, and contrasts clearly with the pale underside of the wings. There is also a hint of the possible yellow rather than orange eyes, but this is the one character that in the end I couldn't be at all sure of. In this picture the light caught the colour of the bird, turning it a warm biscuit colour.

In this next photo the colour is much less picked up by the last of the evening light. The barring of the tail is seen very clearly, and although this feature is found in both Short-eared and Long-eared Owls, it is more distinct in Short-Eared, as I think can be seen here. In this photo the dark tips to the wings are more or less as clear as the carpal marks, which should be right for Short-eared. In Long-eared the carpal marks are very clear and far more obvious than the wing-tips, which are also fairly clearly barred in Long-Eared, rather than dark-tipped, so to say.

The other thing you can see is the white trailing edge to the wing, which is another of the clear characters separating the two species. Also Long-tailed would be rare, although not impossible sight!

The distribution of the species is fairly world-wide, including Eurasia, North Africa, North and South America, various Caribbean Islands and even the Falklands and the Hawaiian Islands. Its apparently quite a wanderer, one of the most widely distributed birds in the world, although it hasn't reached Australia! It is Least Concern worldwide.

We don't really know how Short-eared Owls are doing as a breeding bird in the UK, but from BTO surveys there are thought to be maybe quite a few hundred or perhaps a few thousand pairs in Scotland and other areas where there is mixed moorland or young forestry plantations. Latest figures suggest about 600 - 2000 pairs. In Europe most observers seem to think that numbers are well down on previous decades and it is graded as Amber status. However it is a very difficult bird to estimate populations of, and there is a lot of uncertainty about the counts. This uncertainty is compounded by its very variable and irruptive population status, apparently very dependent upon vole numbers.

The migratory tendency may be linked to the population size in any particular year. Movements of up to 2000 km have been recorded, but UK birds are less migratory than their continental cousins.

The highest densities are found in areas of mixed rough grasslands and heather moors (marginal hill ground or ‘white moor’). A typical home range is around 200 hectares (~300 football pitches) and it seems that a variety of grassland types and heights within range is beneficial. However, territory sizes vary considerably, ranging from 40 to 875 hectares. Resident owls will defend winter territories of about 6 hectares. Winter communal roosts, occasionally of many birds, may occur.

Young conifer plantations can also be important habitats, though second and later rotation plantings may be less frequently used. (did this cause the apparent increase through to the 70s and subsequent decline? Lowland rough grassland, marshes and coastal sand dunes are also sometimes used for breeding though their use of these areas can be erratic (except on some of the western islands and Orkney). In Norfolk they tend to focus on Brown Rats. European birds use more agricultural habitats, and probably prey upon a different range of mammals.

Sexual maturity is attained within one year. It is a generally monogamous bird, with the males hovering and then swooping down (sky-dancing), perhaps wing-clapping, in front of a female in a courtship dance. Because it is a nomadic bird, site and mate fidelity from one year to another is likely to be low. Courtship may begin as early as February, but is later in higher latitudes.

The nest is on the ground, lined and camouflaged, with normally about 5 - 7(12) eggs. This makes the species unusual, as most owls nest up in trees, and generally do not make their own nests, taking over the nests made by others. Normally the females incubate, and are fed by the males. Chicks scatter from the nest 12-17 days after hatching to hide in the undergrowth, but cannot fly until 25 days or older. There is one brood a year (although replacement clutches are laid following predation) and the young fledge after about 4 weeks in total.

Hunting is mainly at night but often seen during the evening and the rest of the day, often low looking for voles and other small mammals. In the UK typical prey could be predominantly short-tailed vole, but these are absent on Orkney, so there the SEOs have adapted to eating the Common Vole. They will also predate upon birds, particularly waders and gulls/terns by the coast, passerines inland.

Using radio-telemetry, short-term cycles of activity, with a period of about 3 h, were detected in Orkney voles Microtus arvalis orcadensis and in one short-eared owl Asio flammeus, their principal predator. Visual observations showed that owls from four adjacent nests had similar activity patterns. These cycles tended to be synchronous both within and between the two species. Short-eared owls thus appeared to be foraging optimally by timing their hunting to coincide with peaks in vole activity, i.e. at times of maximum potential yield. The extent of diurnal activity in short-eared owls varied seasonally. Daytime activity was conspicuous for only a short period in spring and early summer. Otherwise owls were almost exclusively nocturnal. These seasonal changes in activity were probably a response to variations in vole diurnality, vole population size and daylength. Harassment and kleptoparasitism may have been additional influences that interacted with these seasonal factors to determine the extent of preferred nocturnal hunting. In addition, it is possible that the energetic constraints of breeding may force owls to hunt during daylight. Were males only to hunt at night then they may not be able to provide enough food for their mate and young at a time when nights are short and vole populations are only starting to increase.

They tend to be silent on the wintering grounds, but with occassional scratchy barking calls during the breeding season.

There are some wonderful videos on the BBC site, http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/life/Short-eared_Owl#p0039c4y

There were a lot of Black-headed Gulls and Herring Gulls on the beach, exploring the wide sand exposed by the low tide.

Cormorants overflew regularly:

Barden Lake at Haysden

A quick 30 minutes down at Barden Lake with the new lens, but only the old EOS 350D camera, as the 7D is in for cleaning and repair - hopefully! The short session was very enjoyable, but also very cold without my coat! 

This is an adult bird, with the head hood just starting to appear I think, looking good in reasonable afternoon light! The primaries show the white tips on the primaries quite clearly.

This is another adult bird, but in this case there is rather less evidence of the hood appearing. Also there are fewer signs of the white tips to the primary flight feathers.

This next one's hood has also not started yet. We are back with rather more obviously white-tipped primaries again.

This is another bird I reckon. The white eyelids are quite visible against the dark of the head, and overall it looks very like the bird at the top of the page:

The next photograph is of a first winter bird. There is quite a lot of wear on the secondaries (?), which are badly (slightly white) "fringed" at the margins. There is a lot of brown in this bird's wings, this is fairly standard where none of the wing feathers have been replaced. The primaries, which have also been around since the bird first fledged last summer, look to be a uniform brown, with no white tips, which may have worn away! The beak (and legs) are generally (as in this picture) orange rather than red, as is characteristic for these young birds.

This is still the same bird taking off. I do like the water drops!

A nice probably female adult Herring Gull, Larus argentatus argenteus on the signpost in the lake.

Broadwater in January

It was very interesting to see the reserve at this time of year - quieter as far as birds insects and much of the rest of nature goes, but plenty of dog-walkers like myself, as always. The car park was nearly full when I arrived at lunchtime, and about two thirds full when I left at dusk.

A Goldcrest was quietly flicking about in the small Scots Pine along the straight track on the East Heath for several minutes. There was a possible chaffinch (maybe, on rough jizz) on a tree along the heath. A Robin was confidently perching on the branches in the dead hedge at the far section of this track. A Robin and a Blackbird were disturbed in in the sheltered valley to the East of the Decoy Pond (the track back from the straight track).

A hunting group of Tits in the woods beyond the Decoy Pond included Long-tailed Tits, a Coal Tit, Blue Tits (I think), and a little later a Goldcrest. Then there were two Blue Tits among the seed cones in the Alders a little further along.

The veteran oak was looking majestic. The tracks were very muddy - particularly the ones forbidden due to harvesting operations.

A pair of Buzzards. There were 4 or 5 Carrion Crows over the conifers.

The West Heath.

Leybourne quickly

It was interesting to see the gulls and the geese again. I snapped a few photos but only with the limited 55 mm. lens.

This Black-headed Gull below is already undergoing the partial moult into breeding plumage - quite early in the season compared to others.

Most of the Gulls below have not started their moult. There are two juveniles in the background, one in the air on the right, one on the ground to the left at the back towards the water:

The bird below is a first winter, clear from the sub-terminal bar on the tail, and the brown on the coverts. The outer tail feathers are completely white - it is not that have they been replaced already, its the middle tail feathers that are replaced first. The fact that in this bird the outer tail feathers are white is perhaps a matter of individual variability. This variation is noted in the Gull Research Organisation, on the page describing 1cy December plumage, http://www.ridibundus.gull-research.org/01cydecember.html. This looks to me like a complete white feather tip on either side - this would be an unusual variation as opposed to just the outer web being white. However the only other possibility I could think of would be wear - and this just doesn't look right for wear, I would expect it to be more even across the tail as a whole.

Cliffe Pools with Goldeneye in the distance

There were a nice pair of Goldeneye, Clangula bucephala, in the middle distance, so I got some shots in, and they turned out OK. I couldn't see any major advantage in the use of RAW and post-processing though, at least on the screen.

Greenwich Park

Red-Crested and Rosy-billed Pochard on the duck-pond, together with c 50 Black-headed Gulls and 4 - 5 Common Gulls, Larus canus.

College Grounds briefly and Treecreeper!

Very little around in my first quick drive around, nothing on the football pitches or in the trees by the river - where are all the Siskins? It was 9:30 and there were far too many people around already.

However there was a lovely Song Thrush in the northernmost of the three tall limes by the River Bourne behind Elgar block, in fairly full song. And there was a lusty robin singing in the Betula utilis on the path between the Canteen and the Garden Centre.

And then, very encouragingly, I saw a tiny bird flying, undulating slightly, across the College Drive into the three pines by the bike sheds. I was in two minds whether to check on it, but I did follow it up discreetly and to my great pleasure it was a Treecreeper, Certhia familiaris, hopping up the trunks of the pine trees by the bike sheds, one tree after another, wonderful views and actions. I didn't have a camera with me, but I will include a picture taken 3 years ago in the trees in Meadows Field beside the River Bourne on a very snowy day. The white supercilium, the sharp, laterally flattened, beak ideal for probing bark, and the complex pattern on the back of the bird giving it excellent camouflage, all show quite clearly in this photo:

The picture is of a Common or Eurasian Treecreeper, a tiny species of bird which hops UP the side of tree trunks finding insects in the bark crevices, propping itself against the bark with its stiff tail pushing against the grip of its claws. Personally I only see a few of these, if any, a year, as they are very small, quiet, brown and quite inconspicuous, but they are definitely not uncommon birds, widespread and often use larger suburban/rural gardens, parks or woodland where enough older trees are found and insecticides not much used, if ever. The RSPB suggests there may currently be 200,000 territories in the UK, and numbers seem to be on the up in the UK, if anything.

They are VERY fond of trees with crusty bark like Giant Redwood, etc., and they are likely to do well in the tree collection around the College Grounds. They may roost in holes excavated out of Giant Redwood bark. I haven't also seen them passing through my own tiny back garden, where I try to keep a fairly good tree coverage. They are good parents and may raise two broods a year, nesting in old tree bark or woodpiles. British birds, which are said to be of the subspecies brittanica, are said to tend not to migrate or move around very much once settled in territories, and with individual breeding territories of say about 4 Hectares of woodland, only 200 m x 200 m, within larger areas of woodland, I reckon this bird might perhaps never have been out of the College grounds in its life (totally dependent upon the habitat within the College), and at any one time there are likely to be several birds most years across Broadview gardens and around the college buildings and nearby gardens. However an alternative view is that they do wander quite a bit in the winter, and this may be exploring the College from a base in the woods. 

They often join flocks of tits in the winter, and may be quite mobile at that season. Bird Study (1989) 36, 99-104. The exploitation of Tits Parus species, Long-tailed Tits Aegithos caudatus and Goldcrests Regulus regulus by Treecreepers Certhia familiaris: a behavioural study. I.G. Henderson, The University of Leicester. The variation of Treecreeper Certhia familiaris pecking rates was studied in response to variations in the size of associating flocks of Tits Parus species, Longtailed Tits Aegithos caudatus and Goldcrests Regulus regulus. A significant and positive relationship was detected. The actual frequency of association between tits and Treecreepers was investigated, and the analysis and discussion of niche separation and the effects of temperature are also included. It is suggested that increased vigilance afforded by associating with tit flocks allows Treecreepers to adjust their own time budget, away from vigilant behaviour and towards extra feeding. This paper suggests that if the experimenter saw a flock of Tits in the winter, the majority of them did not contain Treecreepers. However the majority of Treecreepers seen in the winter during this research were seen in a Tit flock. The flocks tended to be bigger in colder weather, but after temperature was accounted for, the pecking rate increased in larger flocks, suggesting that the advantage of associating in flocks allowed the Treecreeper to concentrate more on feeding than on vigilance. The Treecreeper is of course not feeding within the same niche as the Tits.

Warren tends to see them very regularly in the Wet Woods and Scrubby Woods, although they do come into his garden, fairly close to some woodland, from time to time as well, where they search for food in a (obviously rough-barked) elder tree. In general they can be thought of as old-growth woodland birds, that may be quite strongly impacted by habitat fragmentation and urbanisation. Woodland fragmentation tends to impact upon nesting success via nest predation (e.g. mustelids), which is often significant, according to Finnish experimentation. The species was also shown by long-term monitoring to be gradually lost from around the Brent Reservoir as the area was built over. Not generally to be found on bird-tables!

Treecreepers are probably most closely related to wrens, a relationship that fits with their size and colouring. Treecreepers have very long rear claws (long curved nails), which presumably help them to grip the bark more easily. The beak is quite scythe-shaped, mainly pale on the lower mandible (especially hear the base), and dark on the upper mandible. The bright buffish "zigzagy" band with dark edges on the wing is quite visible, this runs across the base of the secondaries and the middle of the primaries. The spotty bars further forward on the wing are also quite clear, which I think are the tips of the greater and lesser coverts. The thin streaky patterns on the cap are also quite reliably seen. 

The British form or subspecies is known as britannica. It is darker than the nominate continental form C. f. familiaris, commonly found across Northern Europe, and also further East in Europe. It is also duller, with less obvious ghostly marks on the upperside, duller white underneath, and in some individuals buffy under the tail. The juvenile is rather spottier as opposed to streaky on the upperparts when compared to the adult, and the underparts are again a duller white, as well as distinctly buffier under the tail. There are at least half a dozen more subspecies across Europe as a whole.

I hope to see this one, its mate, or perhaps some of their young, again in 2015 if I keep my eyes open in the grounds. It should nest in April/May or so, if it can find a mate and a suitable nest site. The males may court the females by a delicate spiralling dance around a tree, and wing-fluttering. They are generally monogamous, but with the females doing most of the nest building and care of the young. 

Voice high-pitched and sibilant. 

They may live for up to 7 years, say. 

Food availability and the male's role in parental care in double-brooded Treecreepers Certhia familiaris. Markku Kuitunen, Ari Jäntti, Jukka Suhonen and Teija Aho. The aim of this work was to examine differences in paternal and maternal care in a double-brooded, monogamous species, the Treecreeper Certhia familiaris, in relation to food availability. As a measure of parental care, we recorded the hourly feeding activity of parents when the nestlings from their first and second breeding attempts were 7 and 12 days old. Feeding frequency of the first brood increased with the age of the nestlings and also with the brood size when 12 days old. While the feeding activities of the females were similar with respect to the first and second broods, the males were less active and failed to provide any food to their nestlings in 15 cases out of 28 second broods. In spite of this, the fledglings from the second broods were heavier than those in the first. Such a pattern of male behaviour was possible without being a disadvantage to the chicks because the food supply increased during the breeding season and the female could provide food for the young alone. Thus paternal care was particularly important in times of poor food supply, i.e. during the first brood, where the extent of these males' activity in feeding the 7-day-old nestlings was positively correlated with the average mass of the nestlings. Our results support the idea that the male of monogamous, altricial bird species often makes important contributions to raising the young, especially during periods when it is difficult for the female to do so alone. Males show flexibility in their pattern of parental care, and male Treecreepers change their contribution to the first and second broods within the same season.

The birds move from tree to tree, said to be maintaining an overall direction of travel. They may tend to be found on the more substantial trunks. The flight from tree to tree may involve quite acrobatic braking and swooping to land on the next tree. Title: Effects of male removal on female foraging behaviour in the Eurasian Treecreeper. Author: Aho, Teija ; Kuitunen, Markku ; Suhonen, Jukka ; Hakkari, Tomi ; Jäntti, Ari Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology, 1997, Vol.41(1), pp.49-53
In old, spruce-dominated forests of central Finland, Eurasian Treecreepers Certhia familiaris divide their territories spatially during the breeding season. Females forage primarily on the upper parts of the tree trunks, while males use the lower parts of the tree trunks. In this study we removed males from eight territories in the early nestling period to see if the mate's absence would change the foraging patterns of the resident female. Widowed females foraged at lower heights, thus behaving more like paired males. These females also spent less time on each tree and on each foraging bout than did paired females. We conclude that male removal facilitated the change in a female's foraging niche and foraging time at the trees. Females may re-optimize their foraging site selection owing to the absence of dominant males and a consequent need to increase their parental care. Behavioral plasticity may be the mechanism of niche partitioning between the sexes in this species.

The adults have one complete moult after breeding, later in the summer. The juveniles have a partial moult, actually fairly quickly after fledging, retaining their wing feathers until the following year's moult.  

Craig Bron Bannog

A really lovely spot in the depths of the huge Glocaenog Forest, with great views of the surrounding hills, but sadly with relatively few birds! Another birder I met at the top of the hill, who was from Cyffylliog, mentioned some Crossbills he had heard going over the track earlier, which I had been too early for (!), and we didn't see anything from the viewpoint. Later I thought I might have heard, but not seen, Crossbills by the track on the way down. The hill is supposed to be a good site for a Great Grey Shrike (2012?) but there was no sign of it today. Perhaps this bird just didn't make it back this year. Nothing else at all was spotted for the whole of the 30 minutes that I was there - very quiet!

The details and the equipment of the CEH experiment at Craig Bron Bannog looked quite incomprehensible, although its principles were clear - what effect would the warming and drying of climate change have on moorland ecology and on moorland carbon sequestration!

Here is some frosty heather - definitely a sharp, but not bitter, morning.

This is the phone mast which occupies "pole position" on the hill, and presumably enables the track for access to the experiment at a reasonable cost! A nice bench looking South makes a really good lookout.

Driving around the whole forest later in the morning, quite a few Blackbirds, and a Robin, as I started the drive from the public house and along the Afon Alwen. As I got into the forest, and then past the West bit of the windfarm, there was one turbine with a broken blade lying on the ground. Later there were dozens of Fieldfares and Starlings on the sheep pastures by the Northerly section of the windfarm, with a flock of Chaffinches in the hedge by the next farm. There were Buzzards along the various roadways all day long. A quite large and strange bird flying straight and high over the forest - mainly white with some black, but definitely NOT a seagull - was seen from the car - a complete mystery! Possibly a domestic pigeon??