Siskins on the Access trail

It was a bit brighter this morning, so before I headed off to North Wales to return Nain to her home in time for New Year, I went back to the Access trail to look for the Siskins and any Lesser Redpolls that I might try to find.

I should have taken my tripod, and certainly missed it once I was on site - the lens really is too heavy to get good photos - I also REALLY need to sort out my ISO number and exposure settings to get better photos.

Here is a shot of a male Siskin, Carduelis spinus, that came fairly close, but it still looks very grainy. The size of the black bib is said to relate to the dominance status of the bird.

The black cap is made more emphatic in displays by the raising of the head feathers. Other displays include wing lowering to reveal the yellow rump and wing stripe.  Males may also make circular flights off tall vantage points with slowly fluttering wings, twittering while they do so - possibly in the breeding season? Pairing should take place over the winter period before migration. Nesting may take place in small groups of say 6 pairs, in conifers.

Siskins tend to winter in very different places in different winters, perhaps looking for different supplies of seed crops.

This is likely to be a different bird:

And this is the same bird as immediately above, but with the picture variously enhanced:

And this is a female or immature I think:

This shot from ARKIVE on the web shows the yellow stripes on the primary wing feathers of the adults? These are the characteristics said by the Barcelona/Manchester group of researchers to be both signs of independent foraging ability and also related to sexual selection by the females. You can see the major coverts to the top of this amazing photo.

This close-up shot of mine shows the secondaries and primaries each with their yellow stripes, partrly hidden I think by the greater coverts while at rest.

Duller and duller....

Very poor on the Access trail today, with no finches in the alders. However there were great tits and blue tits in the plum hedge, blackbirds in the undergrowth and hedges, a robin singing by the gipsy heap and wood pigeons flying fast around the area.

Its still very wet underfoot, as bad if not even worse than yesterday. Here is the only nearly worthwhile picture of the day, of a Great Tit, Parus major. If you look closely at the eye, you can see that the lower margin of the eye ring is actually white, the same as the cheek patch beneath it. This appears to be standard in the species. The beak appears very solid in close-up. The underbelly black stripe is nicely broad as you would expect in the subspecies newtowni, and you can see a black splodge under the tail bump as well, also standard in the species. The photo is fairly well coloured for the distance and the very poor light.

Even wetter on the Access trail

The alders turned up trumps today with about 50 small finches. I thought most were siskins, but several looked far more like redpolls, and one bird was definitely flushed pink on the underside across the breast, strongly suggesting a male redpoll.

Boxing Day on the Access Trail

Weak sunshine, and more importantly, no rain this morning allowed me to get Monty out on the Access Trail.

A small group of great and blue tits was in the Primary School section of the planted shaw, blackbirds in the undergrowth, black-headed gulls on Meadows, and two jays in the plum hedge between Court Mead and Rhubarb.

Several fieldfare were heard (and then seen along Victoria Lane), and a robin sang strongly by the three way corner. More tits, or the same ones, were found where MT 133 meets Victoria Lane, and then what I think were redpolls were both seen and heard on the alders planted by the Red Pond.

As we left two corvids chased what I thought was very likely a buzzard off to the North East. No photos today I am afraid, but a lovely walk nevertheless.

Cliffe in December

This picture is of a flock of dunlin wheeling very fast over the far side of the reserve, about a thousand present altogether on the roost I would think. This flock were put up from roosting with several hundred grey plover on the edge of the pools at high tide. 

Other waders present included well over a thousand black-tailed godwits, a couple of dozen lapwing, several ringed plover, at least one avocet, one greenshank, and several redshank.

Duck included hundreds of tufted duck, smaller numbers of Shoveller, Shelduck, Teal, Pintail, Goldeneye, Clangula bucephala, Scaup*, Common Scoter* - and a Velvet Scoter* that I didn't see! Also great crested grebe, little grebe and coot, all in large numbers. 

There may have been many more birds on the pools further over, but I didn't have time to cover the whole of the reserve.

The Scaup and Common Scoter are *new birds for me, very exciting!

The next two pictures are of the drake Scaup seen on Flamingo Pool, distinguished from the Tufted Duck by its grey back (rather than black), greenish rather than blueish shine to the head, lack of a tuft, and  

North Wales coast

There is just so much I have to learn, its endlessly fascinating, but quite scary.

I think these are maybe first winter oystercatchers, Haemotopus ostralagus, a bit more foolhardy, dark tips to the beaks, dark eyes, slightly browner (less black) backs (?), less well coloured legs (apparently quite obvious I would have said). Both have the white chin-strap of the winter plumage, one more clearly than the other. They seem to have quite short strong bills, so may be males if the sexual dimorphism is clearly seen in the young birds as well as the mature ones. The bills are quite orange as opposed to yellow to my surprise as young birds, so they are a bit confusing.

Corylus at Dene Park

Had to shift up to Dene Park today to walk Monty, and so had a look at the hazel leaves alongside the widened rides. I thought there were hazel big bud mites, Phytoptus avellanae and Phyllonorycter coryli on the upper surface of several leaves and a Stigmella type mine too long vacant to identify.