The calm before the storm at Leybourne

Not a bad afternoon before the rain started in. The water was rough on the lake, with coots, black-headed gulls and a few cormorants, scattered across the water. No longer any sign of surface ice.

There were plenty of gulls around and then I saw a Sparrowhawk circling over Snodland flapping quickly, then soaring, in quite tight circles, the first I have seen since the one at Milton Creek.

I walked between the Round Pond and the Key Conservation Area, but there was little there, apart from overflying gulls and noisy magpies. On one of the bramble piles there was a (just) possible redstart - but it was probably really a robin! Several blackbirds in among the brambles and long grass.

On the way out at the junction for Nevil Park there were a few Blue Tits, Great Tits, and on the way back there was a singing Songthrush, and then a Greater Spotted Woodpecker, Dendrocopos major, arrived in the large Willow, and searched some of the upper branches. I went along as far as the entrance to the treatment site, and there were a couple of birds I couldn't identify on the wires at the plant. I wondered about Meadow Pipits. There were plenty of hazel catkins on bushes by this drive and along the stream by the Key Conservation Area, together with a few young ashes with some Chalara damage.

I moved further on and there was a small crows of Black-headed Gulls, Chroicocephalus ridibundus, all ducking their heads and apparently preening on the NW end of Larkfield Lake. There were up to a dozen Tufted Duck, Aythya fuligula, on the other side of the lake.

A cormorant went over the aquatic centre at the Ocean as we returned. Going back to the Wardens Office, there was at least one singing Blue Tit in the Bluebell Wood, and several singing Great Tits in the hedges by the offices, quite close together.  

Icy Leybourne

Part of the far side of the Ocean was iced over this morning, and a group of Gulls were resting there. They looked fairly settled, until I got round there with the tripod, when I quickly spooked them all - TWICE. Its the tripod, honest, I need not to hold it like a gun.

This is one of the Herring Gulls, Larus argentatus, this one in the group on the ice. It looks like a third year bird, with limited development of the white windows in this plumage. The beak looked quite adult oddly enough, and the head was quite white.There is a lot of dark further in on the wing, just visible on the underside here.

There were several Common Gulls, Larus canus, around, both that I had good views of having relatively whitish heads. Nothing else they could be, but its interesting to note the variation. Earlier in the year I have tended to see much darker streaked heads, but the moult to summer plumages is a long way off, so it must simply be individual variation.

Good numbers of Goldfinches

Bough Beech

Lots of Greylags, Shoveller, Mallard, Teal, Coot, Moorhen, Cormorant and some Mandarin Duck on the main lake. Possibly some Wigeon as well.

The smaller lake was largely iced over, with only a couple of Carrion Crows.

Milton Creek

A really nice walk out at Sittingbourne today in warm (for December) breezy weather with weak sun. Targets were the long-staying Long-tailed Duck, Clangula hyemalis. The drake is at the back with its longer tail, and the next one is perhaps a youngster, behind two lighter coloured females. I must say that they are remarkably pretty birds:

There are supposedly 11,000 or so wintering in the UK every year, but the distribution is much more Northern in distribution, generally north from Northumberland with high numbers off the East of Scotland. Most birds probably come from the Iceland/Greenland breeding population, but there may also be some from the Russian/North West European population. There are some records in Kent, but not a huge number. According to the RSPB they eat mainly mussels, cockles, clams, crabs and small fish.

The species is of European Conservation Concern, and appears subject to risk from oil spill in the relatively small Finnish/Scandinavian population. The UK wintering population, at the southwestern limit of its range, is therefore subject to protection and at least three Scottish estuarine shores are SPAs in part consequence.

On the tundra breeding grounds the males are highly territorial, and are reported to return to their territories year after year. Nests, with a down covering on a shallow depression in the ground, may be placed among Arctic Tern nests, affording some protection against predators. Nesting takes place from late June, usually close to a pond. The 5 - 9 eggs are brooded for 4 weeks or so, the males leaving early in the process to moult on the coast.

There were plenty of other birds to be seen, particularly at the height of the tide. There were quite a few wigeon about, although they were not particularly vocal today.

There were quite a few Redshank around.

I got a couple of shots of a Black-Headed Gull flying conveniently past, in classic winter plumage. The wing pattern is just so wonderful, both under and over.

Uplees Marshes

Very briefly at the East Flood, two Greenshank flew in, one of which I got a good view of.

There were thousands of Golden Plover on Horse Sands, in among many other waders and gulls.

Scanning the edges of the Swale, I found Redshank, Dunlin, Lapwing, Shelduck, Curlew and a few Grey Plover on the shoreline mud.

I walked as far as the Fieldfares in the copse beyond the old dock. On the sheds there were Stock Doves, Rooks, Crows and one Green Woodpecker. There were several Grey Herons and Little Egrets. I saw two Buzzards, one of which came to rest on a gatepost.

Looking over towards Mocketts I thought I could (just) see a Ringtail Hen Harrier - just a guess really, quite orange/warm brown on its chest.

Willow twigs and aphid eggs

Here are some views of Salix viminalis twigs and buds, showing the greyish hairs on the twigs and buds. The buds have just one outer bud-scale, and are flattened against the twig, as is characteristic of the genus.

In this closer view you can see the placement of the lenticels on the "shoulders" of the buds - perhaps a very useful place for them to be metabolically? It is also interesting to see the "lipped" appearance of the buds, which may, or may not, be somewhat characteristic of the species - they may have dried out a bit of course. And, is it genuinely S. viminalis?

The other thing is the three small horns on the leaf scar - the two outer ones are smaller and "sharper" and sometimes appear to have a circular scab just to the outside of the horn, and I am finding it difficult to interpret this pattern. One possibility is that the circular scab results from the abscission of a stipule - as suggested on this webpage. The horns would therefore perhaps be "now blocked off" veins? If so the two outer ancillary ones may join with the central main one to form the midrib of the leaf, but perhaps branching off again in the lower quarter or third of the blade. Or could they be for stipule venation?

Several of the twigs had aphid eggs on them, quite glossy black by now.

Here are two more eggs

This is a twig from one of the yellow-orange Crack-Willows, Salix fragilis, on the Southern side of the Ocean lake. The stipule scar is very obvious and the bud itself is quite solid-looking, almost thorn-like at this angle. So many of them seem quite sharply colour-banded.

This is another twig of Crack Willow, this time with one partly diseased bud, a not uncommon sight in my limited experience.

This is a Dogwood twig, showing the spiky opposite unscaled buds that look to me like "witch's fingers"

Snow Buntings at West Beach, Llanddulas.

Started off at Wern Road, Llandulas at about High Tide with about 400 Common Scoter, a Guilllemot, a possible Diver, 2 Great Crested Grebes, innumerable Gulls and Cormorants offshore, with 2 Cormorants, 16 Great Black-Backed Gulls, 9 Herring Gulls and 7 Black-Headed Gulls inshore.

At Penrhyn Bay there were 7 Wigeon (5 males, 2 females) and 3 Red-breasted Mergansers (2 males, 1 female) fairly close-by on the sea. Further out there were innumerable gulls, with at least 5 Great Black-Backed Gulls, 6+ Herring Gulls and 6+ Black-Headed Gulls, and many more I could not identify. Also 40+ Cormorants, flying and feeding.

There were also 13 Oystercatchers, 10 Redshank, and 2 Turnstone roosting on the offshore rocky spit towards the Little Orme,

At West Beach, Llandudno, I walked down to the spit towards Deganwy where there were 3 Snow Buntings, 84 Common Gulls, Larus canus, 20+ Black-Headed Gulls and 25+ Herring Gulls, together with 30+ Oystercatchers.