Saddle Up

Today in a bit of role reversal, Nichola was working this morning whilst I enjoyed a day off of work before going back tomorrow. We'd planned to de-clutter the house of the Christmas trimmings in the afternoon when Nichola had finished, so before that I decided to head out and enjoy some fresh air and the hazy sunshine, and look at some common birds. I headed to Watermead CP South as I often do early in the year when a have a bit of birding enthusiasm.

I like Watermead, despite it being a busy site with people throwing bread, cycling, jogging and dog showing (I'd say walking, but a lot of the dogs seem to be big hulking 'status symbols' - the status generally being wanker). There is still enough space to enjoy a bit of peace, and the birding is generally easy these days. I started birding at this site c30 years ago long before it was as developed and accessible as it is now, when it was barely recovering from being a derelict gravel working site. There was no car park, no big tarmac path and virtually no one else there. There was also a lot less vegetation. Like all such sites, over time things change; new birds arrive, birding scenes change. I often used to see Redshank here in breeding displays, rarely successful but at least they were there along with drumming Snipe. Now I'm far more likely to hear a Cetti's. Like any such site, it occasionally throws up something more notable; past rarities that I've seen there have included Marsh Warbler in 1996 and White-winged Black Tern 1994, but it's been a while now since a proper rarity turned up there.

Anyway, today was no exception - nothing unexpected, but enough to look at if you lift your bins further than the raft of bread-crazed wildfowl and gulls. Today for example, there was an Oystercatcher and a handful of Lapwings on the island far from the crowd. A Grey Wagtail quietly flitted along a quiet stretch of shoreline, and there were Wigeon and Gadwall acting perfectly normally on the quieter 'Nature Lake'. But on the main lake, where masses of people come to feed the duckies, it was chaotic and not just with the usual suspects.

Amongst the Mallards, Mute Swans, Coots, Canada and Greylag Geese, a Pochard was milling about. Not out in the deeper water away from the disturbance. Also a handful of Tufted Ducks and a pair of Red-crested Pochards in amongst this throng.

Despite appearances, all of these ducks (that I zoomed in too much on and lost all sense of perspective) were capable of swimming around in more than one direction.

There were masses of gulls around today too; I looked out for colour rings on the Black-headed Gulls but they were all naked. The only interesting leg I saw on those was one literally hanging by a thread and dangling about as the gull flew over.

This yawning Common Gull was far too tired and laid back to be bothered with chasing after bread.

This Black-headed Gull was far to greedy and oafish to let go of a chunk of bread that was too big to swallow.

Whilst I was watching this lot, Dave Gray popped up. We had a quick chat, and Dave mentioned that there had been a Tufted Duck recently with a nasal saddle. About five minutes later it came around the corner and joined the crowd. I can't remember seeing a nasal saddled duck before; it seemed to be okay though I can't imagine a clip through your nostrils being very comfortable. The saddle looked more red in the shadows, and orange in bright light. I think it is from a Portuguese scheme - details awaited:

Red 'BE'

Just as we parted, Dave thought he could see a colour ringed immature gull over on the island. Neither of us had scopes, but I walked around to be as close a possible (c150 meters away) and grabbed a full zoom shot ....

The bird was preening, but the colour rings on the right leg looked orange and appeared to be 'F=F' - I haven't seen that type of code previously. I wasn't sure of the ID; I'd thought Herring Gull but doubted myself when I couldn't find a scheme that seemed to match - but there was a scheme with similar coding for Lesser Black-backed Gull. Anyway I contacted the scheme organiser and got a very rapid response: female Herring Gull, ringed as a nestling in Gloucester on 29/06/2021 and with one previous sighting at Shawell Lagoons (also in Leicestershire) on 31/12/2021 - probably by our County Recorder Carl Baggott.

More of the same

J5N1 from Norway ....

.... which is the 6th CR Black-headed Gull this week that I've seen at Watermead CP

This ringed individual didn't hang about for long enough to get a readable range of shots - should be identifiable by that debris stuck around it's legs though.

This Lesser Black-backed looked a lot daintier than yesterdays ...

... which then pitched up with a headless Common in between to give a good size comparison -

presume they are male/female

Another improved Pochard shot.

A nice female Tufted Duck

The bread-addicted Whooper still knocking about.

Only other interest was a singing Chiffchaff.

Lately, I have been mostly listening to Knife Party ..

Pochard

Nipped out to Groby Pool at lunch time. Nothing much doing there, although I picked up Shoveler for the year. One duck I seem to have struggled to point the camera at with any success is Pochard. They always seem to but just a bit further out than anything else, and also drift even further out once they notice the camera pointing at them. Today I managed some shots - certainly not frame-fillers but they cropped down to something passable.

The Gadwall on the other hand were never close enough, or in nice looking water ....

Whilst the Canadas were just too close, but anything looks nice in the right light ....

Civilised Birding

Yesterday's fog had cleared a little this morning, at least locally. So, after a few necessary tasks revolving around food (fill up seed feeders, scatter mealworms, fed the fish, feed the offspring ...) I headed over to Narborough Bog. Surely with all these Bearded Tits around there would be some in the reedbed there.

Before I entered the reserve, a small mixed tit flock caught my attention as they worked along the treeline and across to the allotments. I casually put the bins up to see if anything interesting tagging along and was pleased to find a Coal Tit amongst them - first I've seen here and the closest to home that I've ever seen one.

Once in the reserve, I walked around to the reedbed and watched, waited, listened. A sizeable group of Goldfinches went over, and a Great Spotted Woodpecker noisily called, but nothing from the reeds. Maybe they are the wrong type of reeds ...

No. 3 in the Titless Reedbed series ...

The wrong reeds ...

I carried on around the reserve, noting a couple of smart Bullfinches, but it was generally quiet aside from common species. I noticed some fungi and went off-piste to have a look. Turned out to be a great slice of luck as once again on this reserve I inadvertently put up a Woodcock.

Trametes hirsuta?

??

Lots of these flowering in the damp woodland ...

Is it normal for Red Campion to flower in mid-November?

I decided to head up to Cossington again, but almost as soon as hitting the motorway the fog was building again. I changed my plan and headed to Groby Pool instead. Still foggy but nowhere near as poor as yesterday's weather.

As ever, manky hybrid ducks and tame feral geese were cluttering the steps and pathway on the southern shore. There was a single drake Pochard that seemed to have drifted too far away from the rest of the ducks whilst sleeping, though he soon woke up and drifted off once I started to point the camera.

I headed on to the reedbed and bumped into Ben Croxtall and Andy Forryan. Before I had a chance to engage in any conversation we were all watching another small tit flock. A few Goldcrests were tagging along, and there was also the unusual sight of a tail-less Long-tailed Tit. A Kingfisher flashed past a couple of times whilst we waited in vain.

We all headed around to the public footpath to get a better view of the reedbed, stopping on the way to watch the comings and goings of a range of species coming to some seed laid out on a large flat stone. Overall we saw three Marsh Tits, a Nuthatch, two Great-spotted Woodpeckers, a Coal Tit along with a few Blue and Great Tits, Chaffinches, Robins and Dunnocks.

Another Kingfisher, a smart Jay and a flyover Siskin were noted, but the reedbed though remained resolutely quiet ..

No. 4 in the Titless Reedbed series ...

Before heading back onto the main path I noted this impressive looking bracket fungus. No idea what it is.

After a bit of a natter, I headed back to the car. The conditions seemed to be deteriorating so I called it a day and headed home after checking through the various ducks and gulls on the water (nothing exciting).

All in all a great morning out in the field, enjoying both a bit of solitude and peace at the first site and some amiable conversation with like-minded souls at the second. Civilised birding, just like it should be.