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.

Lonely swan

I saw this whooper swan on the pond in Killingworth, not far from here.  By rights it should now be in the far north.

I'm not sure why it didn't go with all the others.  Perhaps it is sick or injured, or couldn't be bothered to fly all that way. The BTO Bird Atlas map and the BirdTrack graph show that each year a (very) few don't make the journey north.

This map shows the breeding range in yellow and the wintering range in blue.

By Jniemenmaa 17:16, 17 November 2007 (UTC) - Global Register of Migratory Species for data, GFDL, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=3108539

Bird of the week - Great crested grebe

This is the best time of year for watching great crested grebes because the chicks have hatched and are taking piggy back rides.  The sexes are said to look alike but these two are noticeably different in appearance.  I would have guessed that the bird with the punk hairstyle is the male but comparing with my photos earlier in the year it was the other one offering pondweed.  That would make this the male.

And this the female.  I'm not sure about it though.

The chicks' colouring is amazing - pin-striped suits and a pink heart on the forehead.

This pair has three chicks.

Earlier in the year the two adults were performing a courtship dance with the male offering pondweed to the female. Not a very extravagant gift but it obviously did the trick.

He also caught a fish but wisely kept that for himself.

Great crested grebes were almost wiped out in this country in the 19th century because they were hunted for their feathers and skins.  The population was reduced to around 50 pairs but they have made a comeback and there are now around 5000 breeding pairs in the UK.

Great crested grebes were common in Thomas Bewick's day.  He wrote "These birds are met with in almost every lake in the northern parts of Europe, as far as Iceland, and southward to the Mediterranean; they are also found in various parts of America.".  He drew his grebe standing on land - something they don't often do.

Although Bewick said the birds were found in America I can't find any evidence that they are now.  However, John James Audubon did paint the great crested grebe.  I think his painting shows winter and summer plumage.

You can listen to Bill Oddie's BBC Radio 4 Tweet of the Day on great crested grebe here.  Watch BBC video of the great crested grebe here.  And watch video of the courtship dance here.

The Ugly Duckling

is about to become a very fine swan indeed!

Bird of the week - Pochard

Another week, another diving duck.  After the recent smew and tufted duck on the blog I have been watching the local ducks with more interest.  The male pochard is a handsome chap with a bright red eye and finely marked plumage.

My Collins guide describes the female pochard as "the most nondescript duck: grey-brown ... tinged greyish ... tinged brownish".  To me she looks more silver and bronze coloured in the sunshine with the same fine markings on the body feathers as the male.  Her eye is dark brown.

Pochard (Aythya ferina) is mainly a winter visitor in the UK with only a small breeding population of a few hundred pairs (the rest go to Russia and Eastern Europe).

Populations across Europe have been in decline in recent years.  Pochard is now listed as vulnerable on the European Red List.

Read more about the decline in pochard numbers here.

Skating on thin ice