Salix viminalis catkins

Returning to Leybourne I looked in particular at the catkins of the Salix viminalis plants on the south side of The Ocean. The first plants were female, and the next ones were male.

The female plant was a beauty and at least some of the catkins were still "active" despite it being nearly the end of April. This is a shot of quite near the tip of a twig, with the bud scale still closed over the female catkin, and an Andrena bee, most likely a fairly well worn male, on the right of the twig. The scale of the opening catkin to the bottom left is below, just visible!

This is a shot of a later, but still early, female catkin on the lower right hand side, showing the silky white hairs, with the female stigmas and styles starting to project out and expand into their active Y-shapes. The catkin on the left hand side of the twig, slightly out of focus, has the stigmas more fully expanded. The two catkins (immediately above and above and to the right) are just losing their scales. The twig on the left shows the pruinescence of the young twigs of S. viminalis, making them look dark grey-green before they turn shiny yellow or yellowy-green lower down the twigs.  

Here the same bee is exploring an open female catkin a little lower down the twig, perhaps getting nectar from some of the nectaries in the female catkin.

One of the odd things is the sequence of catkins opening on the twig - here you can see fully open female catkins lower down, and partly open catkins higher up, with closed catkins in between.

Salix city at catkin time

Back to Leybourne Lakes and there are plenty of willows in flower.

The Salix viminalis was fairly well over, but I did find some female catkins that were only just past their best, with styles still in place, and some male catkins still with stames emerging from the inflorescence. This timing fits with Meikle stating that this is one of the first willows to flower, from late February onwards. I don't think that it was that early this year, but I certainly was seeing the tail end of the flowers by now. The female fruits on some trees were swelling with the vestigial remnants of the styles and stigmas only just still visible. It would be interesting to go back around the site checking to see which plants are male and which are female. They would have either been planted or perhaps germinated from seed. The distribution appears to be around "The Ocean" and I would feel this is consistent with planting whips or other propagules when the site was replanted after its use as gravel pits was discontinued. I need to look elsewhere and compare this with its natural distribution along river banks in Russia as according to Meikle.

As in Meikle, the male flowers each have two glabrous stamens, up to 1 cm. long, much longer than the catkin scale. From the same source, the anthers are oblong, yellow, about 0.5 mm long and 0.2 mm wide, and all these points fit with the plants at Leybourne which I have checked.

Glossy Ibis

Glossy Ibis on West Flood, flew close-by over the road and on to the ditch towards the seawall on the East Flood.

Reculver

Wonderful afternoon, starting with a Black Redstart, followed by Swallows, a Knot and finally a couple of beautiful male Wheatears.

This is the Knot, the first time I have been really sure of seeing one. Nice combination of a shortish black bill and greenish (although I would have said yellowish-greenish) very grey overall, with the barred rump visible between the wings (rather more marked than I had imagined). The wing feathers were not scalloped as in a juvenile, but maybe there are no juvenile plumages left by this time of year anyway. The eye-stripe was obvious through the telescope. The breast markings were small elongated spots, with a few chevron marking below the wings towards the rear.

Why was this bird on its own? It was feeding by dipping its bill into the water very rapidly, quite close to the shore. This is described in BWP as pecking, "to be found 2 hours either side of high tide on sand on the upper shore" and is much more rapid (about once a second) than the normal probing down on the estuary mud.

Black-tailed Godwits at Oare Marshes

Most individual birds are now moulting into their breeding plumages, and beginning to look absolutely stunning.

This bird was just changing into some breeding feathers, but is very slow.

This individual was noticeably still very grey indeed and I wondered whether it might be a young non-breeder? It seemed to me to be superficially quite "scaly" on its wings and coverts, but most importantly fairly well worn, so possibly still retaining its juvenile feathers. Its bill was incidentally also clearly still over-wintering pink as opposed to the breeding yellow.

Another cracking day at Cliffe Pools

A standard long walk around - in warm sunshine! On Crytal/Elf/Conoco pools there were many Black-headed Gulls and a pair of Mediterranean Gulls, together with quite a few Greylag Geese. Pochard, Mallard and Tufted Duck. There were two Oystercatchers and one Snipe at the waters edge at the front of one of the islands. There were a few Little and Great Crested Grebes, together with Coot and one Moorhen over the water.

There was a Robin and Chaffinch singing on the other side of the path to the Pinnacle lookout mound. The viewing mound over Radar was dominated by the Black-headed Gulls, displaying, attempting to mate and always excitedly calling. There were also at least two pairs of Mediterranean Gulls, together with two pairs of Oystercatchers. Always wandering in among the gulls are Jackdaws, who seem to be moderately tolerated, and a few duck settled down comfortably such as Pochard.

Waders resting up on the islands at the high tide peak included a couple of dozen Common Redshanks, about five hundred Black-tailed Godwits and and over a hundred Avocets, although I didn't see any Dunlin on Radar Pool today.

On the water there were Tufted Duck, Pochard, a few Pintail and Shoveller and a large raft of Wigeon. Coots, Little Grebes and Great Crested Grebes. There were Greylag Geese and Shelduck at the back by Hidden Pool.

Walking on to Black Barn Pools to eat my sandwiches in the sunshine, I passed several Cetti's Warblers hiding in the ditches who briefly sang at me. On the pools there were Pochard, Shoveller, Mallard, Tufted Duck, Coot, Little Grebe, Great Crested Grebe, a few Black-headed Gulls and two Little Egrets.

On Flamingo Pool, there were about a dozen Ringed Plovers, at least two Dunlin, Lapwing, many dozen Common Redshank, Avocets (largely moved from Radar?), and at least two Curlew.  Pochard, Tufted Duck, Mallard, at least one remaining pair of Goldeneye, the male being a first winter bird, with head colours morphing into the blackish of the adult with the white patch, but still with the odd headshape, brownish eye, and darkish flanks of the young bird, a few Shoveller, Shelduck, more Coot, Great Crested (a pair displaying in the distance, probably on Hidden Pool) and Little Grebes. Black-headed Gulls, and then a Barn Owl hunting over the marsh at the back.

The male first winter bird, with head colours morphing into the blackish of the adult with the white patch, but still with the odd headshape, brownish eye, and darkish flanks of the young bird. A few months ago it would have been nearly indistinguishable from a female, but would have lacked the yellow bill tip. It is sitting quite low in the water.

There was a Little Egret quite close before I left.

There were Blackbirds, Robins, Chaffinches and a Great Tit singing along the track back to the car.

Lovely but slightly chilly day at Cliffe

When looking at the few Oystercatchers on the islands there was clearly one with a white neck-ring. This could have been an adult that had not yet moulted with a duller bill tip, or perhaps more likely an immature bird that retains its white neck-ring throughout at least the first breeding season (second year). If it was an immature I should also have noticed a duller eye, greyer legs perhaps, a less intense black on the back, and an overall duller and perhaps more pointed bill - but I didn't look. The pointed bill indicates feeding on mudflats and pastures, as the strongest adults strongly defend the best bits of the oysterbeds, the oysters and mussels of which they attack and lever op with a broader blade-shaped bill.

The pale delicate whitish-grey small bird with the Redshanks, with a stiletto bill and orange-yellow legs. Could it have been a Wilson's Phalarope? If not, what are the alternative IDs?