Great Northern Diver in Chatham Docks

Easily spotted in the end, this bird showed a number of confirmatory characteristics.

There was a dark half collar at the base of the neck although this was variably obvious according to the bird's activity and its angle to the viewer. The flattened head, almost concave is visible here. The bill was held horizontal and was ivory-coloured except a narrow dark triangle along the top ridge of the upper section, referred to as the culmen.

Note the lack of a clear white flash on the flank, as would be expected in a juvenile Black-throated Diver.

In the next photograph, you can see the half collar again.

In the next photograph the markings on the back are nice and clear, possibly indicating the white fringed feathers of a juvenile bird. 

The bird was quite active and had regular periods of "splashing about" sometimes apparently with the legs, but with the wings also more or less ruffled. Incidentally, here the head outline looks quite concave.

At other times it is clearly the wings themselves being used to disturb the water surface.

After one of these episodes, the diver dropped its head below the surface, perhaps snorkelling, and then did an upright "flapping" display. Divers and Cormorants do this, Grebes never do:

Here is the same bird doing the same again!

The wing tips often "stuck up" in this bird.

Leybourne with Nain

A nice view of one of the two Common Gulls, Larus canus, at the North end of The Ocean, one chasing the second off its buoy. A nice view of the under-wing pattern, with a big white mirror at the tip, and a broad white trailing edge to the wing. The bill might have been yellow-greenish and had the dark sub-terminal band common to most individuals, and the legs looked somewhat yellowish. The eye was dark as always, and the head suitably streaked for winter.

Cliffe

About 2,000 Dunlin, 1,500 Lapwing, say 1,000 Golden Plover, 10 Grey Plover, 8 Redshank, 1 Heron, 2 male and 2 female Goldeneye, several dozen Mallard, only 4 Pintail seen, 1,000 plus Pochard, 200 Tufted Duck, Shoveller, Wigeon, only a couple of Teal at most, Great Crested Grebe, Little Grebe, Coot, Wren, 3 Magpies, 1 female Marsh Harrier. Inland, a dozen Fieldfares, and a Songthrush and Robin in song.

The tide was too high for any birds on the river, but the hopper dredger Charlemagne, of Luxembourg registration, was emptying gravel into the bulk hopper at the start of the dragline taking the gravel and then dumping it onto a pile inland, and then Ocean Promise, London, took the first of the ebb tide downstream.

A gorgeous quiet day, with hazel catkins all along the A228.

Cliffe initially sunny

Not good photography today, although the sun was good initially. A lovely peaceful and beautiful day. Good views of at least one male and probably two female Marsh Harriers.

Good numbers of Coot, both Grebes, Tufted Duck, Pochard, Wigeon, Teal, Shoveller, Mallard, together with some Moorhen, Pintail and two male and three female Goldeneye. Huge flocks of Lapwings, one Grey Heron, two little Egrets, half a dozen Redshank, one or two Greenshank. Black-headed and Herring Gulls. One bird appeared in distant photographs that must have been an owl,

Teal and a score of Redshank in the mouth of the river channel.

A blustery Leybourne

A walk around the West side of the Ocean, and then on either arm of the Railway Lake. Most of the same birds as yesterday, with a few different shots.

And a shot in flight of a first winter bird. The two outer tail feathers are the last to moult so maybe haven't developed their black tips properly yet??

There was a beautiful Moorhen just by the bridge:

Leybourne with the camera today

As there was reasonable weather today I took the camera back to Leybourne, and very much enjoyed the birds through the lens.

The Black-headed Gulls, Chroicocephalus ridibundus, took starring roles of course, and here is an adult on one of the buoys by the feeding area, so well camouflaged against the background of the waves.

and another with better developed "headphones".

I tried to get some "in flight" shots, but most were very blurry, and I think the combination of poor light and limited ISO of 2000 meant the shutter speed was just too slow for the movement. 

Here is an adult in flight with coverts or perhaps scapulars(?) stalling: 

This photo is in because this appears to be an adult plumaged bird but with a rather light orange beak - compare with the other adults above, so perhaps a 2cy December bird. It also shows the white extreme tips to P 4 - 7.

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Reculver, warm but breezy with a little windchill

It was nice to get back to Reculver today and we were blessed with an open sky and drier conditions. Great to see a Grey Plover, Pluvialis squatarola, together with Oystercatchers and Gulls on the rocky foreshore by Coldharbour.

I identified it as a Grey Plover by its eyespot, overall bulkiness, lack of colour, and the fact that it was solitary - I have only seen Golden Plovers in large flocks over the winter, and never seen birds on their own. The Grey Plovers have travelled further to get to these wintering grounds, generally nesting up towards the Arctic Circle, on tundra beyond the tree limit. A nearly cosmopolitan bird it is known as the black-bellied plover in America. Russian birds get as far as Australia and South Africa, Alaskan birds get as far as Central America.

In winter feeds as much by night as by day, perhaps defending feeding territories and maybe not the most highly mobile wader species on its wintering grounds.

The adults generally leave the breeding grounds, generally non-coastal wet tundra from July to September, and the juveniles follow September to mid-October. When they arrive they tend to end up on beaches by the winter - although I have seen them at Cliffe and Oare Marshes in good numbers earlier in the autumn, presumably birds still moving through on passage. Northward return passage peaks in May and breeding should start in May and June. In Europe this appears to be primarily coastal, with few birds crossing continental Russia, but in America migration may be more continental as birds appear to be able to use the Mississippi Valley as one return route. Young birds however may stay southerly for the first year, presumably moulting into breeding plumage.

There was an interesting piece of research from the Sivash lagoons near the Black Sea indicating that waders may be more limited in feeding opportunities by salinity, wind speed, direction and tide state than might initially appear to the human researchers. The organisms accessibility is often limited by their vertical distribution in the sediments themselves, the worms being highly mobile.

Australian summaries indicated that during the non-breeding season, Grey Plovers mostly eat molluscs (especially gastropods), insects and their larvae, crustaceans (especially crabs) and polychaete worms. Vegetation is very occasionally found in their stomachs. During the breeding season, they eat mostly insects, but may occasionally eat vegetation. The Grey Plover usually forages during the day, but sometimes also feeds at night, when up to 40% of food may be obtained. They usually locate prey by sight, with cues used including movement of water, sand or casts from the burrows of polychaete worms. They feed with a running, stopping and pecking action typical of many species of plovers, gleaning and probing the substrate. Bivalves are seized by the siphon and torn from the shell, while crabs are pecked apart. Main prey in French research on wintering grounds indicated main prey items of benthic worms such as Nereis diversicolor or Nepthys hombergii. However I often see them just standing about, and not appearing to feed very much at all, so maybe they are not all that desperate? This was true of the half dozen birds I saw on the 30th December at Reculver last Christmas. However, maybe I need to look more closely as well!

Prey items include Fiddler Crabs, Uca spp.  In one study of feeding on these in Argentina this species fed in a similar way to American Golden Plovers, but waiting longer than that species until they ran at the crabs. Several times they waited until crabs surfaced, capturing crabs very close to their standing position (n = 15). Crabs were always eaten entirely. The selectivity index showed that females were the preferred prey, while unidentified items and males were attacked at much lower proportion than their availablity. This species was the only species that defended its territories by singing displays and chasing other conspecifics or American golden plovers when their feeding area was approached. American golden plover had a cyclical use of the crab bed and the nearby intertidal, spending a variable time (range: 3-9 rain) in the Uca bed, moving to the lower intertidal, and then returning to the Uca bed "after a similar amount of time (range: 6-10 rain). It was unclear from the paper whether the Grey Plover shared this habit.

Cliffe in mild weather

160 Golden Plover, over a thousand Lapwing, several Redshank, Great Black-backed Gulls, one Lesser Black-backed Gull, Herring Gulls, Black-headed Gulls, Coot, Shoveller, Teal, Mallard, Wigeon, Pochard, Tufted Duck, Great Crested Grebe, Little Grebe, one Cormorant, two Grey Heron, four Marsh Harrier, two or three Fieldfares, two Black-tailed Godwits, two Curlew, one Little Egret, one Cetti's Warbler heard.

The weather held throughout the visit, from 12:30 until about 4 pm, although we lost the sun about 2 pm.

It was lovely to see the Golden Plover, Pluvialis apricaria (Linnaeus, 1758), in good numbers at Cliffe. The last time I saw them in numbers was on Horse Sands in the Swale on the "predators day" with Tony Swandale. 

Leybourne getting dark again

About 90 Greylag Geese by the feeding station on the Ocean for a change, and a Blackbird taking Rowan berries off the first of the two trees on the south side. Then a good half dozen Goldfinches in the trees moving right across the path. Muscovy Duck on the perch he was on the other night, several Farmyard hybrids, Moorhen, Tufted Duck, Coots, Black-headed Gulls were all that could be picked out by eye in the gathering gloom.

The Italian Alder male catkins are still green, about twice as long as those on the Common Alder.

On Roaden Island Lake four grey cygnets with their mum, and rather strangely, one Greylag tagging along with three Canada Geese. At least seven Shoveller, a lovely surprise, with a couple of Gadwall and the usual Tufted Duck and Coot.

Over to Railway Lake, where I put up a couple of Mistle Thrush or Fieldfares, and by now I could only pick out Tufted Duck on the lake in what was now the genuine start of dusk.

Murky Leybourne

When I arrived at 3 p.m., there didn't seem to be much light this afternoon, and initially very few birds on the Ocean. However after we got a bit further along the path and I let Monty off the lead, things went OK, with more Tufted Duck on the main water, and interesting ideas coming to mind on the trees by the side of the path. There were one or two Wrens by the wooden swan, and later on, a party of mainly Long-tailed Tits, but with at least one Blue Tit, in the Willows on the other side of the path to the hedge-line Alders in front of the first houses.

Many of the Crack Willows, Salix x fragilis, look very orange on the young twigs, particularly the upswept ones on the lower branches nearer the ground, and these may be a form known as nothovar basfordiana basfordiana, colouring up well as the winter proceeds. These are most obvious on the South side of the Ocean Lake, and the East side of the Railway Lake.

The unknown shrubby willow by the last Leybourne Way entrance could in theory be a White Willow. There are no cracks exposing orange in the bark of its main stem indicating that it might be the Almond-leaved Willow, Salix triandra, that I hope for, but it still doesn't look quite right for a White Willow and there is little to no pubescence on the leaves and twigs, although it is admittedly late in the season. It has retained a thin but widespread covering of small lanceolate leaves, but no overall structural jizz of a White Willow. It also feels as though it is naturally comfortable as a shrub, not stretching up to a tree shape!

On the taller and more likely White Willows there are still a few leaves on many of the brushy twigs. On one or two trees there are numbers of willow catkin galls, caused by a virus or mycoplasma.

Along by the wet woodland area, the Grey Willow Carr, I did find one bush of a yellow-green barked cultivar of White Willow, identifiable as such from its leaves on regrowth shoots. It was also possible to identify many of the Grey Willows from a distance, picked out by their retention of their relatively small obovate leaves, obviously colouring up well and often a good butter yellow.

There was also a "Grey Willow type" shrub there, with much larger leaves, so possibly a Grey x Greater hybrid. On the Italian Alders there was quite a lot of leaf weevil type damage, together with
some possible Heliozela resplendella (Stainton, 1851) leaf miners, indicated by the oval cut-outs seen. The leaves are holding fairly well although a bit dulled and some yellowing as they age.

On the Roaden Island Lake there were several Black-headed and one Common Gull, Larus canus, two Canada Geese and one very close-up Greylag, quite a few Coots, a pair of Mallard and some Tufted Ducks.

On Railway Lake there were dozens of Tufted Duck and at least two male Gadwall.

Conwy RSPB

A Water Rail, Moorhen, Coot, Snipe, Curlew, Redshank, Oystercatcher, Black-tailed Godwit, Teal, Wigeon, Gadwall, Black-headed Gull. Herring Gull, Red-breasted Merganser, Pied Wagtail, Blue Tit, Great Tit, Bullfinch, Magpie, House sparrow, 

Penrhos Coastal Park

There were Black-headed and Herring Gulls, a possible Great Northern Diver, a dozen or so Wigeon, hundreds of Dunlin and Redshank, and a hundred or so Pale-bellied Brent Geese.

There were very good numbers of first winter birds, perhaps indicating a good "lemming year" to keep the Arctic Foxes happy, and reduce predation upon the goslings.

This is a group of five, the two adults and three first-winter birds, with the barring on their wings.

The population here is an offshoot of the main group of Irish over-wintering birds. These have come some from Canada but most from north to north east Greenland. There are two main flyways of the Greenland breeding birds. Some of them fly down the east coast of Greenland and then via Iceland to Ireland, being joined by fair numbers of Canadian birds. Others fly down the west coast of Greenland, some crossing the inland icecap at about the latitude of the Arctic Circle, others continuing down and around Cape Farewell, and probably bypassing Iceland. Main migration period mid-September to third week October, arriving in Ireland generally in the second half of October, occasionally shifting haunts over winter. Return occurs April to mid-May, arriving by early June, some crossing the inland ice-cap again. 

Leybourne getting rather gloomy

I shouldn't be surprised really, as I only arrived at 3.30 and the light was rapidly fading from the sky. I went up the West side of the Ocean, across to the Railway Lake and back via the oval pond, by which time it was getting too dark to see much.

There were Black-headed Gulls, one Common Gull, a Canada Goose, a Greylag Goose, several Tufted Duck, Moorhens, many Coots, Mallards, a Great Crested Grebe and Cormorants on the Ocean, but overall it was very quiet at the end of the day. Some Tits flew through the lakeside Alders and Willows, as I got to the Northern half.

On the Railway Lake there were two Great Crested Grebe, Tufted Duck and Coot. On the path I looked closely on the right hand side of the path at the willow (hybrid viminalis and cinerea?) between the lone small Alder and the clump of other bushy Willows. On the oval pond there were a female Tufted Duck, Coot and two Mute Swans.  

Leybourne late on a sunny afternoon

The light seemed to make a real difference to the birds, and there seemed to be a lot of waterbirds and passerines around. Several parties of Tits, usually mixed Blue Tits, Great Tits and Long-tailed Tits.

Many Black-headed Gulls, five Common Gulls, Larus canus, several Greylag Geeses, one Canada Goose, Great Crested Grebes, Cormorants, Coots, Moorhens.

Raptors on Sheppey

A truly great day on the Island, with leader Tony spotting amazing birds with utterly impressive regularity. Merlin, Sparrowhawk (which I missed), Common Buzzard, Marsh Harrier, Peregrine, Kestrel were the target raptor species seen. Black-headed Gull, Herring Gull, Great Black-backed Gull, Curlew, Golden Plover, Lapwing, Dunlin, Carrion Crow, Magpie, a lovely Stonechat pair, a very nice Pipit, Corn Bunting, Linnet, FieldFare, Starling, Brent Geese, Greylag Goose, White-fronted Goose, Mallard, Little Egret. Bearded Reedling, Siskin and Kingfisher were heard apparently.

Continental Pear Rust in Hadlow

Here are some long shots high up in the foliage of a Pear Tree in Great Elms, Hadlow, I am sure I can see some galls caused by Pear Rust, with the strange outgrowths on the underside of the leaves.

and here is a closer crop of the gall on the right.

and here is a different picture.