Winter water birds

It has been very cold for the past few days and the local ponds and lakes are frozen.  All, that is, apart from one end of Kilingworth Lake, a mile from here.  There the birds have manage to keep a patch of open water and there are hundreds of them crowded in.  I didn't get worthwhile photos of all of them but the birds I saw included black-headed gull, Canada goose, common gull, coot, gadwall, goldeneye, herring gull, little grebe, mallard, moorhen, mute swan, pochard, shoveler, and tufted duck.  They were all very close in and very hungry, so prepared to tolerate humans.  It was a great opportunity to see them close up and to take a few photos.

For example, it isn't often I see a goldeneye this close.

The most numerous duck was tufted duck.

I also saw a few male pochards.

And mallards.

The gadwalls weren't joining the party, preferring to take a nap on the ice.

Other partypoopers were shovelers.

I am used to seeing shovelers on the water but I hadn't realised how small they are until I saw this one next to a mallard.

Gulls present were black-headed gulls,

herring gulls,

and one first-winter common gull.

While I was watching several people brought food for the birds.  The swans and gulls in particular saw them coming and raced across to meet them.  The ducks, coots and geese joined in the scrum.

The thaw started today so the birds will be able to spread out across the lake again or disperse to nearby ponds and lakes.

Flypast

Birds in flight are not my strong point.  It is rare for me to get one in focus.

End of year favourites - Non-garden birds

This is my final posting of favourites from 2015.  It was a good year for watching owls.  I saw both barn owl and short-eared owls flying in daylight but my only tawny owl shot isn't worth sharing.  Long-eared and little owls are on my wish list for 2016.

I saw more yellowhammers than ever before.  This one was at Branton in Northumberland.

Then a couple of LBJs (little brown jobs) - reed warbler and reed bunting.

And a little white job, a leucistic chaffinch.

Next a few fish-eaters from Gosforth Park.

This is the most endangered bird in Newcastle - a kittiwake.  There is a proposal to put up netting to stop the birds nesting on the Tyne Bridge, which would be a tragedy.  You can lodge an objection through a link here.

And finally a few favourites from the Farne Islands.

So, not a bad year.  I'm looking forward to better photos and new species in 2016.

Bird of the week - Black-headed gull

The black-headed gull (Chroicocephalus ridibundus) is a handsome bird in summer and then lives up to its name. Chroicephalus is Greek for coloured head and ridibundus is sort of Latin for laughs a lot.  In fact the birds look a bit glum in these photos taken on the Farne Islands in June.

In winter it is a bit less distinguished, especially when plodding round in the mud.  It still doesn't look happy.

Black-headed gulls are common all year round up here in the North and breed in Gosforth Park.  It looks from the Bird Atlas as though they are less common in the west and south, particularly as breeding birds.

Read more about black-headed gulls here.  Listen to the BBC Radio 4 Tweet of the Day on black-headed gull here.