Riverside Country Park and Common Gull

Here is one of the relatively few Common Gulls, Larus canus, seen from Bloor's Wharf. Notice the dark blue-grey on the back. The UK summer population is 49,000 but this swells in winter to 710,000, according to the RSPB. Populations are supposed to be declining, making it of conservation concern. In Europe they breed to the north of continent, and the same northerly pattern is found in the UK. Their breeding range is most continuous in Scotland, often on colonies on inland lochs.

Their diet is quite varied, including fish, insects, carrion, small mammals and rubbish - they may frequent rubbish tips, often more often in harsh weather. Over the winter period they may rely a lot on earthworms, on ploughed or grassy fields.

Adult summer Mew Gull probably is not the first plumage to be expected in The Netherlands. Therefore this page focus on Mew Gull brachyrhynchus vs Mew Gull canus in 1st cycle, 2nd cycle and adult winter plumage. Below is a list of "classic" differences, which may be more prominent on one bird than it is on the other, so please always consider individual variation in either taxon.

Classic Mew Gull canus in adult winter:
- very dark iris,
- band on bill,
- bill colour rather greenish yellow, not vivid yellow,
- leg colour rather greenish yellow, not vivid yellow,
- very delicate fine spotting 'often pencil streaking' on winter head,
- this spotting concentrated on crown and not in hindneck; also not running down to sides of breast (clean breast),
- short tongues op P10-P8,
- very large mirror on P10 often completely merged with white tip,
- large mirror on P9,
- sub-terminal black on P6 points upwards along outer edge of feather,
- often no or little black on P5,
- large white tips on outer primaries.

Classic Mew Gull brachyrhynchus in adult winter:
- speckled, but medium dark to paler iris,
- even in winter no band on bill,
- bill colour more vivid yellow,
- leg colour more vivid yellow,
- blotchy, mottled winter head,
- this mottling concentrated in hindneck (which sometimes solidly dark); also running down to sides of breast creating scally pattern,
- long tongues op P10-P8, tongue of P9 >50% of visible length,
- obvious white tongue tips 'string of pearls' with sharp division between white and grey on P8,
- medium-sized mirror on P10 often with complete sub-terminal band,
- small mirror on P9,
- black on P9 not reaching prmary coverts,
- sub-terminal black on P6 of evenly width, not upwards along outer edge of feather,
- often broad 'symmetric' black band of even width on P5,
- sometimes spot on outeweb of P4,
- outer primary tips becoming smaller outwards,
- inner primaries and all secondaries with large white tips.

EXTRA'S
- delicate small head on long-looking neck,
- delicate fine bill,
- slightly darker than Mew Gull canus,
- P10 patterned like cachinnans, canus more like michahellis.

This individual looked like an ordinary Common Gull, but has a darker nape to the neck and a darker tip to the bill. I also can't see much at all of the white pearls or mirrors on the wing. There also seems to be a dark brown mark on the slightly turned-up wing. All these suggest a second winter bird (2cy/3cy bird) rather than an adult, and this is backed up by the photos on the Gull Research Organisation page.

Leafminers and others at Dene Park

Looking at what I think must be the Beech Midget, Phyllonorycter maestingella (Muller, 1764) on Beech, from which it has rarely been shown to wander. The moth overwinters as a pupa and then flies as the adult in May and June. These lay eggs and the first larval mines appear in July, and the adults fly again in August. These lay eggs again and a second generation of larval mines can be found from late August to October, leaving the pupa to over-winter once more.

The mine tends to be quite long, often from the midrib to near the margin of the leaf. It does turn to be a very tubular mine, with several creases on the underside, which it is said might sometimes be mistaken for one strong crease. There were old mines from the first generation, long vacated.

This is one of the two Stigmella species commonly found on Beech, the Beech Pigmy, Stigmella hemargyrella, which mines towards the midrib, not away from it. This is an old mine, from the first generation of mines of about June. There are several photos on the internet that look exactly like this.

I saw a couple of similar mines today.

On hornbeam, Phyllonorycter esperella possibly and perhaps Stigmella microtheriella.

Green Sandpipers at Bough Beech

On the north pool there were four Green Sandpipers and a juvenile Dunlin. The Green Sandpipers were distinguishable by the overall bulky appearance (NOT quite Audrey Hepburnish as in the Wood Sandpiper), the eyestripe being restricted to the front of the eye, not extending behind it, the upperparts dark, little speckled (but the juveniles are a lighter brown and their backs are more speckled) with a fairly clearly delineated breast stripe above the white belly.

This particular bird appears to be a juvenile, as described above. The head is quite a bit lighter than the back and wings. The speckles on the wings are in fairly regular lines.

The eyestripe is most visible and obvious from directly in front of the bird.

There is a hint of the bird's white rump in most of the photographs taken, as also in these two below. The barring on the end of the tail can also be picked out.

The white eye ring around the black eye is more obvious in some photographs than others,

One feature of the species remarked upon in ID guides is the dark underwing seen when the wing is raised. This was seen (very blurrily) during a video taken, when the bird raised its wings upright for a second or two just after a heron overflew. The darkness of the underwing contrasted very strongly with the white of the belly. In a close view it will be seen to consist of blackish white-edged scales.

The bill seems to be lighter at the base, darker at the tip in a few photographs. The legs are said to be greenish, but just appear mid-toned, even when not covered by mud, in the fairly distant photos taken by me.

Green Sandpipers are often solitary on passage, but small groups, as seen today are not unusual.

Milton Creek on the 1st of July

This is a male Black-tailed Skimmer, Orthetrum cancellatum, which can sometimes be a little tricky to distinguish from the other skimmers and chasers in the genus Libellula and Orthetrum respectively, the family Libellulids.

Clues you might pick up on are the dark pointed tip to the abdomen, the lack of ante-humeral stripes on the very brown thorax, the lack of any blackish wing-bases, the yellowish costa on both wings, the black tip spot on the wing tips, and the green-blue eyes (from above). A characteristic "path-rester", often found sunbathing on bare soil, but in this case seen perched on vegetation by the fishing pond.

Knot in breeding plumage at Oare Marshes

A nice adult (I think) Knot (Calidris canutus) just coming out of breeding plumage, (perhaps the back is quite blackish?) hidden in among the Black-tailed Godwits, Limosa limosa. A Knot in winter plumage then gradually joins it, making a nice comparison. 

Deal's car park trees

In Deal the lichens were swollen on the Ash tree trunks in Sainsbury's car park after heavy rain. In this first view the central grey-green Flavoparmelia species is dominant, with the orange Xanthoria in smaller patches to the right.

Here is a closer view of a slightly different area below and to the right of the Flavoparmelia. Here is the Lecidella elaeochroma with the black borderless fruit.

The greyish jam tarts to the bottom right are probably Lecanora chlarotera, rather crowded, but I do not know what the one on the top left, even more crowded, is. It is however possible that they are the same species. There is a small frond of possibly Parmelia rather than Physcia, but again it is rather difficult to tell.

The Ash trees were showing a little Chalara dieback, but not terminal yet.

Next to the railway station there are three or four Snow Gums, Eucalyptus pauciflors ssp niphophila, with the most amazing trunks.

Further along in the Network Rail car park there were a couple of newly planted trees (very nice to see)  including this one, which looked like a nice Crab Apple.

By the station fence itself there were two quite well established Holm Oak (Quercus ilex) trees in flower, and with the pale new leaves and shoots clothing the dark older ones further in to the canopy.

This is (I think) a fairly typical young Holm Oak trunk with splitting blackish bark.

In a car park nearer the sea, there were good numbers of Norway Maple, Acer platanoides, showing quite a bit of dieback.

There was also a very nice group of Birches, Betula spp.

Many of the tree planting beds show some excellent gardening:

This was an excellent bed in Sainsbury's of all places!

Ferns with Ros Bennet

We had a lovely day with Ros Bennet and the Kent Wildlife Trust today, learning to identify ferns in the Kent countryside.

Our first field visit was to Quarry Wood on the Lower Greensand scarp above Yalding, where we found a huge Wild Cherry, which was already on the Kent Heritage Trees database and map.  There were two very large fructifications of Chicken-of-the-Woods, one at the foot of the tree and one much higher up. These fructifications are quite whitish and might actually have been active last autumn. The tree is one of the largest Wild Cherries, Prunus avium, I have ever seen.

Chicken-of-the Woods or Sulphur Polypore, Laetiporus sulphureus, may well be a  group of species rather than just one, according to US research. It is regarded as a saprophyte rather than a major parasite, and may be just one in a longer line of problem that this massive tree has experienced over the years. It was recorded by the Kent Heritage Trees Project 6 years ago, and a split trunk, brown cubical rot and 4 holes were listed then, as seen now. It was recorded as tree 599 recorded by Stephen Foster at TQ7170351838.

More information on some arboricultural fungi such as Chicken-of-the-Woods, https://arboriculture.wordpress.com/category/fungi-2/laetiporus-sulphureus/

This is the tree is its woodland context;

There is a good range of trees on this woodland site, including some very large Ash. This is an old Ash Pollard stool, definitely worthy of note. I do not know why this one was originally selected for pollarding:

We passed one of the specialities of this reserve, Paris quadrifolia,

There were also a few fungi to be found, such as these Ganoderma brackets:

and this "candlesnuff" relative on fallen deadwood, each about an inch or so high, possibly Xylaria longipes:

In one part of the wood we found one "clump" of Hard Fern, Blechnum spicant. The speciality of this species is the split between the vegetative fronds on the outside and the fertile fronds (with obviously narrower "linear" pinnae) in the centre of the clump. Most Blechnum grow from a rhizome, but this particular species grows in a neat tuft. Each of the fertile pinnae in the centre (one is visible here) bear two rows of sori. This species is often sold as an ornamental.

The next fern we were shown was the Male Fern, a fairly simple bi-pinnate structure, with neat rounded-oblong. There are sparse pale scales on the stipe and rachis. This is the (fairly large) shuttlecock, with many vigorous fronds.

Here is a closer shot:

Close by was a shuttlecock of a Lady Fern, Athyrium filix-femina, near an Ash tree trunk, which immediately looks "frillier", possibly tri-pinnate. The species is found across the Northern hemisphere.

I think this is a Lady Fern frond unfolding:

Also quite frilly is the quite robust Broad Buckler Fern, Dryopteris dilatata, with its mitten and thumb pinnulet structure. The stipe and rachis are well covered in golden scales. The sori are covered by a kidney-shaped indusium, as with other Dryopteris species.

Having explored Quarry Wood thoroughly, we moved on.

There are also a number of "smaller" ferns in Kent, quite a few of which may be found growing on walls. This is the Black Spleenwort, Asplenium adiantum-nigrum, growing on a northerly wall of Marden Church. While a little difficult to identify from a distance initially, there is a tidy and relatively glossily green medium-sized triangular frond, and characteristically the stipe is a clean almost glossy black. In fact there are two species of fern here, the Black Spleenwort in the centre, and what might be a Shield Fern surrounding it.

The Spleenwort reveals itself when looked at closely - the pinnae are beautifully set and very similar to the pinnae of the Wall Rue, a much commoner species of Asplenium. It is a bit difficult to describe, but it's the rounded roughly "diamond" shapes of the individual lobes that are characteristic. Overall the frond is roughly bi-pinnate and this speciesn is quite flat or 2-dimensional. That is however quite distinct from the Wall-Rue, when the pinnae are HELD in a specifically 3-dimensional manner.

The green can be quite yellowish - perhaps because of lack of nutrition growing on the wall, as it is normally described as dark green (?).

From the angle above the dark stipe below the green rachis is of course invisible, but was very obvious when the fronds were moved, or from the top, as below.

The form of the fronds can be quite variable - it often seems thinner, with more space in between the branches, and the tip may be more pinnate than bi-pinnate. The other spleenworts (maidenhair and green) are all singly pinnate, and very clearly so.

At Linton Church we found Western Polypody on the wall by the road, although I do not think I will ever be able to tell one Polypody from another. The single fronds emerge singly from a rhizome.

While visiting Linton to look for ferns on the church wall, we had a look down the Lower Greensand scarp across Linton Deer Park on the slope, with its Fallow Deer: