Barden

Chroicocephalus ridibundus, the Black-headed Gull in flight has such an amazing pattern of black, grey and white on its wing. Here you can see the obvious black on most of the primaries as viewed on the underwing, but the highly contrasting bright white of 90% of the underside of P10 and P9 apart from their jet black tips, with perhaps very small white patches on P8 and P7.

The rest of the underwing is mainly a contrasting dark grey, shading lighter towards the base of the wing, with maybe also a greyer patch nearer the front of the wing, but you generally also see a bright white front line to the front of the wing at the shoulder. 

The last two pictures are of the same bird, and its only in the first of these that you see a suspicion of the white flashes of P8 and P7. This could therefore be the angle of the feathers, with the white from above showing through when the feathers are opened or at a certain angle.

The upperwing is not the same pattern, with a much larger wingtip white triangle for a start, although there are a lot of general similarities.

To learn more, I'd better take lots more, and better, photos! This should enable me to recognise second winter patterns for example.

Here's an old photo from Cliffe - note how the primaries further in from P10 and P9, are both black and white!

The Bourne meanders

This was one of the nicer afternoons of February, although not as warm as the previous two days.  So I took the footpath through the College's equine unit until I reached the meadow just upstream through which the River Bourne meanders. The beautiful meadow and the river meanders edged with alders are just gorgeous, even in the thin winter sunshine of a February afternoon.

The occasional clump of snowdrops brightens the banks. Here you can also see the "witches broom" of some of the alder bases - a few have this dense thicket effect that may be physiological.

Saturday gulls at Barden

Lots of black-headed gulls on the lake today - is it because its Saturday? Several more now wearing their brown hoods. Two Common Gulls as well. Usual Mallard (the rufus-sided one included), several mating season flights going on, Tufted Duck, and the two Farmyard Ducks with a cormorant flying overhead twice (or two birds?) and a pair of Great Crested Grebe showing very well indeed.

Canada Geese (looking as though things are moving along) and I was glad to see the Greylag hybrid back again. One Mute Swan. Coot, including the regular mottled bird, and several pairs of Moorhen.

Robins and Great Tits singing. Chaffinches, Blackbirds and Blue Tits around.

Scandi readiness

Several hundred fieldfares, Turdus pilaris, with a couple of redwings, Turdus iliacus iliacus, a dozen or so blackbirds, Turdus merula, and about 70 starling, Sturnus vulgaris, were on Gipsy and Rhubarb fields this afternoon. Overall it was quite a sight!

 Looked as though the fieldfares are going for a protein rich diet before heading off back to Scandinavia. Warren reported over a hundred on the sheep field at Migrant Alley in the morning.

Breeds in small colonies.

A pair of greylag flew together over Gipsy, one mainly white on the body with really only a grey neck and the pair were later seen on the ground in Great Court. A kestrel flew low over Rhubarb, putting the fieldfares up into the trees.

A small group of great tits were noisy in the newer trees along 123 towards Victoria Road, and later through the ash trees between the two fields. 

Access in the breeze

Lots of lords and ladies and nettles starting to come up. Tits and bullfinches lively in the plum hedge. Corvids chasing a buzzard, two separate passes.

Barden Lake

Greylag Goose, Anser anser, Only a few were on the lake today, but I think the main flock may still have been nearby. At one point I heard them on the neighbouring fishing lake.

This cob mute swan has a rather strange looking tip to its beak, and I think it must have suffered a rather traumatic wound to the lower bill and tip: 

A very unusually coloured coot has been around for a couple of days, flocking with all the other waterfowl, including many "normal" coots, near the feeding area.

Just one of the two Egyptian Geese were seen today, which unfortunately I think we disturbed so that it flew off over the lake. It appears to have been eating the grass around the lake.

A drake tufted duck looks seriously at me!

This looks like an adult Black Headed Gull, Chroicocephalus ridibundus, just starting to replace its winter plumage with its brown headcap. As it darkens it tends to look sooty black rather than the brown of the fully developed cap - as do the winter head stripes. I have never seen any explanation of this. The bill is also already darkening up, showing less of a distinction between a redder base and a darker tip. By the time of the breeding season, the bill is often sufficiently dark overall to be almost concolorous with the headcap. This picture shows the very clear "white eyelid" effect

This next must be an immature Black Headed Gull, first winter perhaps. The most obvious feature are the dark-centred tertials, very clear in this individual. Tertials are apparently not true flight feathers but are located on the upper arm, near the body, and are used primarily to cover the primaries and secondaries while at rest. The so called tertial step is an important ID feature in some gull species while at rest - see this blog reference. Note also the orange base to the bill, characteristic it seems to me of overwintering first years and juveniles in general. It is a bit puzzling as there is little in the way of brown along the side of the wing - its all mainly at the back of the wing - but there is so much of it that I think it must still be a first winter. You can also see the dark tip to the tail, if only just, from this angle.

I think this is a different bird, from the other side of the lake taken much earlier, and a slightly worse photograph. However it's a very similar pattern of brown on the wing:

This is a rather more conventionally coloured wing, on a bird on a signpost stuck in the middle of the lake by the main (Western) feeding area, Again note the orangey rather than reddish bill (and legs?) of these young birds:

And another one from the Western side, again with some browning along the wing, although perhaps not quite so much as the previous picture. The small dark smudge to the front of the eye visible in most wintering birds is fairly obvious in this picture:

And here is the one Common Gull, Larus canus I saw, just before I was distracted by a "hooded" Black Headed Gull, and so I only confirmed it for sure when I looked at the photos later.

This is a drake Mallard, Anas platyrhynchos. The Mallard were in small groups across the lake today, but some at least appear to be pairing up.

There were a couple of cormorants, Phalocrocorax carbo, on the lake, diving for quite long periods and distances, so presumably fishing. One took off from the water and flew low across in front of one of the two islands, and the blurry photographs showed the white thigh patch of an adult in the breeding season.

Elegance in white at Conwy

I arrived at Conwy RSPB after leaving Rhos and the fantastic Purple sandpipers there. It was still fairly close after high tide.

A Little Egret, Egretta garzetta, stalked the shallows of the reserve, giving a few photo opportunities in the poor light of late afternoon.

The rest of the reserve was relatively quiet, but there were plenty of birds as well as people around. There were a lot of herring gulls, but a bit too far away too diagnose in detail.

There were lapwings, Vanellus vanellus, roosting on one of the islands. These were all in winter plumage, with the lack of the black throat, and perhaps the browner back - its a bit difficult to tell. There is one bird near the middle with rather less black in the eyespot as well, so possibly a first winter bird - the apparently shorter crest might support this view - perhaps!

Next to the island were fleets of Mallard, Anas platyrynchos, and Teal, Anas crecca, with Canada Geese, Branta canadensis, on the shore behind.

Several Red-Breasted Mergansers, Mergus serrator, were seen, but were too far away for photographs. A female Goldeneye, Clangula bucephala, was preening thoroughly on the other side of the causeway, almost completely inverted!

I kept my eye open for water rails, Rallus aquaticus, and the recently seen bittern, Botaurus stellaris, but no luck again today.

There were redshanks, Tringa totanus, and a few curlew, Numenius arquata, and Grey Plover, Pluvialis squatarola, on the estuary foreshore exploring the freshly exposed mud as the tide went out.

Onshore the feeding area/wildlife garden was busy with Great Tits, Parus major, Blue Tits, Cyanistes caeruleus, Dunnocks, Prunella modularis, and Chaffinches, Fringilla coelebs, such as this female.

As we left the reserve, the first groups of starlings, Sturnus vulgaris, started arriving for their evening"murmuration". Up to 30,000 birds have been recorded on particular one night this winter.