Merry Christmas

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.

WeBS

I signed up to count waterbirds for the Wetland Bird Survey (WeBS) on Banks' Pond at Dinnington last year and I have just completed the first 12 months observations.  WeBS is a partnership funded by the BTO, the RSPB and the JNCC.  It has been collecting data on wetland birds since 1947.  Synchronised counts take place every month with 3000 volunteer counters making 40,000 visits each year to 2800 sites.  "Waterbirds" includes wildfowl (ducks, geese and swans), waders, rails, divers, grebes cormorants and herons and counts of gulls and terns are optional.  Many sites are coastal or estuarine or on large inland water bodies so my site is one of the smallest.

I have seen 12 species in the first 12 months, many predictable but one or two surprises.  I haven't been trying to photograph them as many are shy and I have to do much of the observation from the bridle path before entering the site.  The list of birds is: 

Canada goose

Coot

Grey heron

Little grebe

Mallard

Moorhen

Mute swan

Shelduck

Teal

Tufted duck

Wigeon

Woodcock

All except grey heron, shelduck, teal, wigeon and woodcock breed at the site.  Woodcock is the only "wader", although it doesn't do much wading, and I didn't see any gulls or terns.  The only other bird I can remember seeing in the past while looking for other things (especially dragonflies and bumblebees) is greylag goose.  Previously I have only been to the pond regularly in summer so it will be interesting to see what else turns up with regular winter visits.

The mute swans have been very successful this year with eight cygnets.  Here they are in May

and in September.

The adult swans can't leave until the cygnets can fly, later in the year.  The male swan has been very aggressive towards the Canada geese this year and in the end they managed to raise only one gosling.  I don't know whether the swan had anything to do with the demise of the other goslings but I have my suspicions.  Young geese learn to fly much more quickly than swans so I expect they were pleased to be able to escape a few weeks ago.  I wonder if they will try again next year or find somewhere quieter.

Dragons on a feather bed

It has been a marvellous Indian summer for dragonflies at my local nature reserve (I'll write a review soon).  The warm weather continues but I think the season will be over within a week or two.  Last week I found four male black darters at Gosforth Nature Reserve.  There seem to be no females so they spend most of their time sitting around in the sun.  (I think these were dispersing from breeding waters not too far away in the hope of finding new territory.)  There were lots of male common darters as well and they were also resting in between chasing each other and females. Another animal spends quite a lot of its time sitting around and made a very comfortable resting place.

The swan seemed irritated by the dragonflies and kept waking up and shaking or chasing them off.  Once it caught a common darter on its back but it was so quick I couldn't see whether it ate it or just got rid of it.

This one had the sense to keep out of range.

As did this black darter.

Common darters are common so I expect the swans will have to get used to them.  I hope there will be more black darters in future seasons as well.

Twelve swans a-swimming

I met a mother swan with her ten (!) cygnets, just climbing out of a pond.  She then led them on a long (100m) walk beside the boardwalk through the reedbed.  You can see why cygnets aren't white.

Once they reached the next pond they could at least get their feet clean again.

They then swam under to the other side of the boardwalk.

And their father was there waiting for them.

The cob joined the pen and the cygnets in the water and all 12 were swimming together.

The BTO website says a normal clutch for mute swans is 4-7 eggs so this pair is doing exceptionally well.

* In the Christmas carol The Twelve Days of Christmas there were only seven swans a-swimming.

A big surprise on CulvertCam

So far animals seen on the camera(s) in the culvert have included otter, water shrew, water vole, field vole, brown rat, American mink, water rail, robin, wren, moorhen, mallard, frog (being eaten by an otter), and spider.  When I arrived to check the camera this time I could see some very strange tracks inside the pipe but couldn't work out what animal had left them.

All was revealed by the trail camera.

I am amazed that the swan would go through the pipe which is 75cm in diameter.  As you'll see from the video it had second thoughts the first time but did eventually pluck up the courage to go right through.  I can't read the ring to see which swan it is.

Although the camera is fairly securely clamped to the end of the pipe, and is now otter-proof, I am lucky it wasn't knocked into the water by the swan.  For the moment I have removed it to use it elsewhere.

Out and about in September

I saw this handsome male migrant hawker sunning himself a couple of weeks ago and took his photo.

When I returned about 10 minutes later I found a female migrant hawker on the very same branch about 3cm lower.  It is obviously a popular spot.

Here's another view of the male.

And another female, this one with blue male-type (andromorph) colouring.

I also tried some flight shots.

This rather shy female migrant hawker was ovipositing in Weetslade Country Park.

Southern hawkers are just about at the end of their season so I was pleased to see a male in Gosforth Nature Reserve. The only camera I had was in the phone which usually gives good quality photos but this pinched zoom was disappointing.  Just a record shot.

Common darters will be around for a few weeks yet if the weather is OK.  There were still newly emerged immatures.

This is a male.

And a rather mature female, almost grey.

These two, ♀ and ♂, were hoping to soak up a few rays of sun.

This was probably my last ruddy darter of the season.

Butterflies I saw included common blue,

green-veined white,

and speckled wood.

This was the only bumblebee I saw in the whole 1km transect on my monthly BBCT Bumblebee Walk.  It is obviously a cuckoo of some kind and is a bit faded but I wasn't sure which species.  After seeking expert advice it can only be narrowed down to Bombus bohemicus/vestalis so I don't feel too bad.

I also saw this ichneumon out hunting.

It is not easy to identify.  There are 2500 species in this country, many of which are very similar.  This page from the wonderful Natural History Museum Beginner's guide to identifying British ichneumonids illustrates the problem.

There seems to be more Robin's pincushion around than usual.  It is a gall on wild rose caused by a tiny wasp, Diplolepsis rosae, so that is one species that is doing well.

Two more swans have arrived at Banks' Pond and are throwing their weight around, trying to intimidate the surviving resident female and her two remaining cygnets.

The youngsters are several weeks away from being able to fly so at the moment they have no escape.  I hope it turns out well for them after all they have been through.

This young great spotted woodpecker in the garden is losing the juvenile red colour on top of its head in a very attractive chequered pattern.

And a wood pigeon on the "sparrowhawk" perch while the sparrowhawk was away.

Averaged out, the weather for September was fairly average, but it was a mixture of warm sunny days and wet stormy days.  October is starting off very wet.