Oare to just beyond Uplees

I disturbed half a dozen small finches from the salt marsh by Uplees Copse, and they ended up in the top of one of the trees in the copse. The one pictured turned out to be a male Linnet, Linaria cannabina.

  
There was a Grey Heron standing on the edge of the muddy shore:

As we walked along, individual Common Redshank, Tringa totanus, were regularly startled from their feeding points along the mud, and here is a nice view of one in flight, showing the barred tail. You can just see part of the white back stripe.

There were lots of Black-headed Gulls, feeding on the mud and flying around. By now the light was so poor that the ISO was preventing much cropping in the photography.

There were some Herring Gulls along the shore, as well as over-flying. This one appears to have a dark tip to its tail, and a blackish gonys spot on its beak, with no brown obvious on its wing, but a good yellow iris to its eye, so just possibly a fourth winter bird.

Lesser Black-backed Gull I think,

Greater Black-backed Gull on the channel marker,

Curlews in flight over The Swale

The first of two female Marsh Harriers flew over The Swale, possibly to roost on Sheppey.

On the far side of The Swale there was a very large raft of Teal and Wigeon apparently resting quietly, probably well over a thousand birds in total. This is a small part of the raft

There were Shelduck scattered around the Swale, sometimes feeding, sometimes flying. Here is one flying in front of the raft of duck in the background

On the way back, we came across a group of about a dozen Black-tailed Godwits, exploring the mud. They are often a bit later getting out on to the estuary than some of the other waders, after roosting at high tide.

Walking back towards the copse, a single Turnstone was very busy, examining a clump of seaweed and stones:

Got a little crustacean, or something else?

Oare to Conyer

At one point I spotted a kestrel returning to its lookout post on the seawall. Sadly I had to disturb it to complete my walk to the mouth of Conyer Creek, and I didn't see it again on my return:

At Oare slipway and beyond Uplees Wood, there were good numbers of Dunlin - and also some Redshank - feeding on the mud.

There were a few individual Curlew,

a few Oystercatchers

and two Great Crested Grebe, one of which looked to still be, at least partly, in juvenile plumage. here the youngster appears to be "checking" with the older bird.

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.