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.

Out and about in October

I twice went to the coast in October looking for goldcrests but didn't see one.  Then last week I heard one in the garden. The first camera I grabbed has only a 300mm lens so the photos are a bit heavily cropped but they are not too bad. This is the first goldcrest I have seen here for almost 20 years but I expect they are here more often and I don't notice. I had forgotten they have such bright orange feet.

When I was at the coast at least I saw a few gulls.  Gulls are not always easy even though I went on a gull ID course last winter.  This one is easy - a great black-backed gull (I hope).

And a herring gull.

And a first winter herring gull (I hope).

This is a bit of an experiment.  I made a panorama of redshanks at St Marys.  It looks OK on my computer but I don't know how it will come out on the blog.  Click on the photo to enlarge it and see if it worth looking at.

In Gosforth Nature Reserve I met a young roe deer fawn, now in her dark winter coat.  She was curious but not alarmed, even though I was fairly close.

I always find flight shots very difficult but at least this heron, also in the nature reserve, is nearly in focus.

Back in the garden the wasps, bees and hoverflies were enjoying the Kniphofia caulescens.

October was mostly wet and windy, starting with Storm Alex and ending with Storm Aiden.  The charts don't show wind but confirm the cloudy wet weather.

Early in the month was the UK's wettest single day on record.  And this Met Office chart confirms that it rained almost every day, which was what it felt like.

The reimposed lockdown will have an impact on all our activities but I'll try to get some photos for November, even if only in the garden.  During the first lockdown there was so much see that I was posting every two days.  Now I'll try to keep up once a week.

Bird of the week - Herring gull

I was on a low light and long exposure workshop with Doug Chinnery in Whitby but this fellow insisted on having his photo taken.