Whitethroats and Sand Martins at Leybourne Lakes

Quite a few Whitethroats, Sylvia communis, were to be found, defending territories or setting up nests.

I think the one I was photographing here from the first bridge across the stream might perhaps be a male, as although its head wasn't so clearly grey as I would have expected, it wasn't truly brown either. There is quite a clear eye-ring, and I rather think that the brown on the head might be superficial and might be about to wear off. It is still quite early in the season, and most of the females have perhaps not arrived yet. It is known that the males arrive first, and prepare "cock-nests" for the approval of the female. This bird does seem to be the same bird throughout (there appears to be a dimple in the forehead just to the left of the beak in at least some photos), there was a distinct pinkish tinge to the breast, and it was singing well in between visits to the nest, on the other side of the stream, so it is at least possible that it is a male.

The next two pictures are perhaps more clearly a male, if indeed it is the same bird!! To be honest the only thing I can really suggest is that it is an adult, partly because it must be as it is nest building, but also because the iris is not anywhere as dark a brown as would be expected in a juvenile bird, and so the light brown of the iris clearly contrasts with the dark pupil in the centre! The inside of the eyelid is said to be reddish, and I wouldn't strongly disagree, although I wouldn't strongly confirm either!

The beak is also quite well shown in the picture below. The upper mandible is dark horn, the lower is flesh-yellow except at the tip where it is also dark horn. The cutting edges are flesh-yellow. The inside of the mouth is yellow-pink.

The legs are brown (not as pale brown as I have read) with the toes perhaps slightly darker.

In the nominate subspecies, Sylvia communis communis, the moulting process is a complete moult post-breeding before migration, although perhaps partly suspended for the migration period, and then a partial moult pre-breeding.  In the Eastern subspecies, volgensis, rubicola and icterops, the post-breeding moult is partial, and the pre-breeding moult complete.

Nominate males then arrive on the breeding ground with fresh head and body plumage, i.e, the head and body will tend to be browner than the text-books generally suggest. The wings and tail are likely to be more worn, perhaps explaining why it is very difficult to see the normally stated white edging to the tail in this particular bird.

The post-breeding moult is primaries and secondaries descendent, working from P1 outwards towards P10, and S1 outwards towards S6. The suspension of moulting, if it occurs, is more likely to delay the moulting of the secondaries than the primaries.

While I was watching the whitethroat, there was also a Moorhen fussing about on the bank, before it slowly swam off.

The Muscovy Duck was by the feeding area:

The Greylag Geese were present in small numbers around the feeding area, looking in good condition.

One pair had three fairly new goslings.

The Mallards are looking well paired up, and svelte! Here is a drake.

There was one Muscovy drake as well.

Way out in the middle of the Ocean, there were Sand Martins skimming over the water and feeding, but too far away to be more than a blur in the photo.

There was an Andrena species female solitary bee in the shelter by the side of The Ocean, with a shiny black top to the abdomen, but I couldn't be sure of the species. Quite possibly Andrena nitida? (2021 guess).

Osiers at Leybourne Lakes

Leybourne really is a magical place, despite the pipeline they are putting in across the site by the "Ocean" lake at the near end, and the new paper recycling mill being constructed at the far end of the lakes by the river.

I was trying to look at the willows more carefully, separating the White and Crack Willow trees, but as I looked, it was becoming much more obvious how much Common Osier, Salix viminalis (L.), there is around the site. These are generally multi-stemmed shrubs or small trees rising to about 3 or 4 times my height, much smaller than the taller other trees of the genus here. There are reasonable numbers at the far end of the Ocean Lake, still with plenty of their long narrow leaves on at the moment, and they seem to be well held very late into the winter. The shrubs all seemed to fit straight Salix viminalis, which is common throughout most of lowland Britain, but it is quite possible that I missed some hybrids, which may be either planted as SRC or rarely found in far-away pockets of the country. Equally, some of the trees near the waters edge had good long leaves over 15 cm long, while other (smaller) trees upslope and amongst grass showed with leaves nearer 8 cm long - just due to competition or what?

The remaining leaves are long and narrow, tapering both at the tip and at the base from a thin stalk, arising from a boat-shaped insertion on the stem over the catkin-bud, linear-lanceolate (to 20 cm long) slightly wavy and almost entirely (untoothed) or completely entire, with an obviously silky hairy covering on the underside, a very obvious soft silver even from a distance, especially when the leaves were dry. The petioles are narrow, very pubescent and often partly or even wholly canaliculate on the upper side. It is difficult to see how this can be distinguished from the matted tomentose nature of Salix elaeagnos without having seen those leaves, but the so-called appressed nature of the hairs may imply they are shorter and smoother as well as being presumably laid flat in their complete coverage over the lower surface.

I couldn't see any hairs on the top of the leaves, there are reputed to be a few scattered there, but it is actually very late in the season. The stipules, when present, were linear, (reputedly often falcate) about 10 mm long. They were not however regularly (or uniformly) caducous, a feature which may just apply to the weaker shoots..

The margins of the leaves were very clearly turned down or revolute along the majority of the length, and this was particularly notable as the leaves dried over the day or two in the house before I got to look at them in detail. The margins were wavy, going up and down in the vertical plane regularly along the edge of the leaves. Some sections of the leaf margins appeared to show slight crimping as though they were showing the early stages of the gall midge attack, Dasineura marginemtorquens. There were wingless aphids commonly, evidence of leafhopper feeding, and willow rust everywhere on the undersides of the leaves.

The most amazing thing about them is that many of the leaves appeared to be twisted around so that they were almost upside down! Following the channel of the leaf base as it emerges from the boat-shaped structure branching out from the stem and almost fully covering the very gorgeously silky catkin-buds, the channel of the proximal side twists over until it is on the positionally "lower" or "outer" side of the leaf, forming a groove over the now "outer" surface of the leaf, which is morphologically the glossier top. The ridge on the distal side away from the stem equally appears on the "upper" silky-white under surface of the leaf which now appears to be held upwards or on the top or "inner" side in relation to the stem!!  This must be about being linear leaves near the stem, and needs to be checked out in the field, in case they have twisted as it dried. After checking it looked as though this was all due to the way the shoots were being held.

The stems are extremely interesting, remaining rather grey-silky until you get far enough back along the stem that the leaves have been lost, and then turning into a rather attractive glabrous and shiny greeny-olive young "multiple epidermis" as the silky hairs are lost. Lower down in the denser parts of the bush I thought this epidermis turned more towards the yellowish-brown hue. In addition you can see the first-formed buds at the base of the shoot appear now to be much more widely separated than the later formed ones near the tip, as well as being much smaller and quite dormant in appearance. Is this due to rapid shoot extension early in the season? The pith inside the shoot is filled with a quite tightly packed fibrous material, the structure of which appears to be pre-adapted to the flexible but still tough nature of the osier wands!

The silky part of the stem is pierced occasionally by beautiful low-lying (i.e. below the level of the surrounding epidermis) chestnut-red lenticels, with a central channel. As the stem matures, the corky cells in the lenticel develop and grow further, pushing the lenticel up above the level of the stem surface now covered in the developing glossy young "multiple epidermis", so that you get a tiny chestnut-red raised welt on the new surface, on which the channel is less obvious. I'd rather not call the glossy surface bark as yet!

I haven't looked at the main branches and trunks as yet. Photos hopefully to follow. The general outline of the shrubs/trees may be narrow, truncate or rounded. Growing osiers for basket making is a very interesting industry! http://www.harpenden-history.org.uk/page_id__125.aspx

It may have been widely planted in the UK, especially in N and E, and may also be an Archaeophyte, despite its widespread distribution, possibly having originated in the river systems of Russia and having been spread westward with man. It may be quite genetically uniform, fitting in with this, but may have several varieties, including one known as var. linearifolia, although this can also be created by neglect or a difficult growing environment.