Goosanders at Brickfields Pond, Rhyl

Staying for a day with Nain in North Wales, having returned her home after Christmas, on a rather cold day I was glad to find this new site to me, a well-visited pond on the edge of Rhyl housing and industrial parks. In theory I was looking for a reported Slavonian Grebe, but instead was delighted to find half a dozen or more Goosander, both male and female. Checking on the females has improved my knowledge of these birds no end.

Here is one of the better pictures of a female, showing the clearly demarcated white chin, the long-fringed crest, the sharp edge to the chestnut-red head colouring, the thicker bill at the base, and the less striped face.

The light was fairly poor, so most of the images were washouts, with relatively little detail.

Alder leaf galls at Cae Ddol, Ruthin

Had a good walk up through Cae Ddol to the old bridge, and looked for a few leaf-miners and some galls.

I think this is Eriophyes laevis, one of the fairly common mite species that colonise Alder leaves. Most of these have now turned black, and presumably have gone over. There is an earlier post from Haysden Country Park, showing the chambers at an earlier stage.

This is Aceria nalepai (Eriophyes inangulis) with its chambers along the vein axils along the midrib, and the corresponding areas of unusual hairiness of the axils underneath the leaf. I have seen this at least once before, at Haysden Country Park near Tonbridge.

I might also have seen Taphrina tosquinetii on one Alder leaf.

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.