The Greylag Geese are still around in numbers at the Ocean, noisily posturing to each other:
These two might perhaps be a pair, the male behind?
and Greylag Goose N3P is still at Leybourne Lakes it appears.
There was a Great Crested Grebe just off the feeding area.
These were Greater Sallow catkins, Salix capraea, by the side of the Ocean.
and these untidy ones are the male Salix viminalis trees at the far end of The Ocean, pretty much over by now. I wonder whether all the trees here are male, perhaps indicating a single scattered planting. Perhaps there are no females:
There were two Lesser Black-backed Gulls on the Railway Lake, The bird on the left might be a bit chunkier with a thicker bill, so might be the male of this putative pair. The wings seemed to me quite dark, and I did wonder whether this might be two birds closer to the over-wintering continental race Larix fuscus intermedius rather than the more typically British L. f. graellsii. Ohlsen has intermedius as being found overwintering in the South of England with graelsii being found across the whole of the country. However the detailed pattern on the wing, particularly the presence of the small but full window on P9, may indicate just two particularly dark graelsii.
These two might perhaps be a pair, the male behind?
and Greylag Goose N3P is still at Leybourne Lakes it appears.
There was a Great Crested Grebe just off the feeding area.
These were Greater Sallow catkins, Salix capraea, by the side of the Ocean.
and these untidy ones are the male Salix viminalis trees at the far end of The Ocean, pretty much over by now. I wonder whether all the trees here are male, perhaps indicating a single scattered planting. Perhaps there are no females:
There were two Lesser Black-backed Gulls on the Railway Lake, The bird on the left might be a bit chunkier with a thicker bill, so might be the male of this putative pair. The wings seemed to me quite dark, and I did wonder whether this might be two birds closer to the over-wintering continental race Larix fuscus intermedius rather than the more typically British L. f. graellsii. Ohlsen has intermedius as being found overwintering in the South of England with graelsii being found across the whole of the country. However the detailed pattern on the wing, particularly the presence of the small but full window on P9, may indicate just two particularly dark graelsii.
This bird was seen later, on its own, and may perhaps have been a different individual to the two above. At least this one had quite a large window on P9 as well as the one on P10. That would tend to suggest that this bird is a male, but the greater overall size, beak thickness and "viciousness of look" of the males can be very difficult to be sure of unless you have males and females side by side for comparison. This bird does however look quite chunky, and the bill in particular looks very substantial.
Lesser Black-Backed Gulls of the graelsii/intermedius types have increased greatly since the 1950s, but this contrasts with the serious decline in the nominate fuscus of northern Scandinavia, which is now threatened.
There were also Herring Gulls on both Lakes and regularly overhead.
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