Lymington in October

Today I visited one of my favorite local nature reserves, Lymington-Keyhaven. With winter on the way it's starting to get busy with winter migrants.

Perhaps the easiest bird to see at the reserve, and indeed anywhere along the UK's coast, is the black-headed gull.

It's estimated that around two thirds of UK black-headed gulls in winter are actually migrants from mainland Europe. In winter these birds lose the chocolate-brown plumage which give them their name and just a brown smudge remains.

There were plenty of ducks on the reserve although most were females which look very similar and are difficult to identify from a distance on a murky day.

I suspect all or at least most of these ducks are wigeon- the bird in the top left is clearly a male wigeon. Wigeon do breed in the UK but only in Scotland and Northern England so these birds will be winter migrants from Iceland, Scandinavia or Russia.

Wigeons are dabbling ducks, like mallard, which means they feed by tipping headfirst into the water. The legs of dabbling ducks are more central than other types which means they can walk well on land and graze there.Diving ducks have to run across the water in order to gain momentum to take off whereas dabbling ducks are able to take flight straight from the water.

As you'd expect at this time of year there were plenty of waders around in the shallower water. I still find wader identification really tricky especially in winter when they tend to be similar light grey colours- it's highly possible some of my identifications are not right. 

There were many small waders which I think are probably dunlin- they are after all our most common small wader. 

Unlike other small waders, dunlin have slightly curved beaks which seems to be the main way to identify them. 

The largest waders of the day were the black-tailed godwits on the left of this photo.

It's interesting to see that these godwits still look fairly bright, not yet having faded to their full greyer winter plumage. I'm speculating that unlike other waders I saw, these are actually resident birds (I've certainly seen godwits at the reserve all year round) and therefore don't naturally fade as early. 

One more wader I saw was the greenshank. 

Greenshank aren't especially common in the UK with a few breeding in Northern Scotland and then a few overwintering here on the South coast. Like most waders they mostly eat small invertebrates but will catch small fish and amphibians. 

I also spotted several oystercatchers. 

It would be easy to assume that these birds eat oysters but unfortunately their name isn't really very accurate. They mainly eat cockles and mussels but also eat worms, especially if they are inland. Indeed, over the last fifty years more birds have started to breed away from the coast. 

It wasn't just aquatic birds I spotted on the reserve. You wouldn't necessarily expect to see goldfinches on a freshwater marsh but there they were amongst this red plant. 

Also taking advantage of this habitat were a few meadow pipits like the slightly blurry one I captured here. 

These birds are found all over the UK but mostly stay in the uplands in the breeding season. However, in winter they move South to the lowlands and becomes much commoner in the Southern half of the UK. 

I was surprised on my way back to the town through the yacht marina that there were a lot of larger fish right near the shore. 

I wonder why these fish were on the land side of the yacht marina. No fishing is allowed in the marina so they are protected by that and the large amount of human activity and the shallow water means they are protected from most predators. 

I suspect, though I'm not sure, that these are thick-lipped mullet. There are four species of mullet in the UK- red mullet, which these look too dark to be, the golden grey mullet which isn't usually found at estuaries and harbours and the thick-lipped grey and thin-lipped grey mullet. These fish are often found in shallow waters and can even enter freshwater. 

That's all for now, see you again soon!

Action on the Avon

It’s been the hottest week of the year so far with temperatures hitting as high as 25° C. The warmer weather has caused plenty of invertebrates to emerge. Yesterday I was pleased to see thousands of common blue damselflies.

It’s still early in the year for dragonflies but I did spot this young female black tailed skimmer.

I really like the fine detail you can see on it’s wings in this photo. This species are common across Europe and Asia but were first recorded in the UK in 1934.

I’ve also seen a few other common insects like a red soldier beetle and a harlequin ladybird.

Today I walked along part of the River Avon and found a particularly rich section for wildlife on one stretch. I was first alerted to it by seeing this black-headed gull perched on the bridge.

This gull was diving into the river, obviously looking for food. What was particularly interesting to see was that large fish in the river were not happy with this behaviour and were actively trying to attack the gull when it was in the water. Fortunately the light allowed me to get some really clear photos of the fish, which are chub.

I don’t know much about fish and finding information about them is hard as most of the information is from an angling perspective. It seems likely that these chub were sat here feeding on small creatures floating their way. The gull was likely looking for the same prey but the chub probably saw it as a threat.

On the same stretch a little egret was hunting, presumably looking for the same prey too.

There were also some mallards pulling at vegetation and there was something of a confrontation when the egret got too close to one of them.

On a different stretch of the Avon this moorhen was feeding.

Moorhens tend to be quite flighty so seeing one feed is not always easy, especially in a place which can often be quite busy. They are omnivores, eating everything from snails to insects, small fish and berries.

A few more birds to finish I think. Here’s a photo of a greylag goose. There’s not much to say about it other than it looks magnificent here.

Finally, here’s a jay feeding at Blashford Lakes Woodland Hide. They are truly beautiful birds.

That’s all for today, I’m off to enjoy this glorious weather some more!

Pond of Life

I was out in the New Forest again yesterday and as usual there was plenty to see. My first spot of the day was a young buzzard sat on a branch.

Once again there were loads of stonechats darting around the gorse bushes. I think this is one of my favorite photos of the year so far.

Eventually I arrived at a viewpoint at Abbotswell where there is a small pond. Small though it may be, I was amazed at just how much wildlife was around the pond. There were dragonflies and swallows swooping over the water, the swallows often dipping into it for a drink.

A goldfinch emerged from the clump of trees you can see to have a quick drink:

As did another favorite bird of mine which is making it’s debut on this blog, a pied wagtail:

At the far side of the pond I saw a young green woodpecker picking insects out of the grass, as well as a group of starlings.

Nearer the shore were a pair of common blue damselflies:

I’m not quite sure what they were doing here. Usually these damselflies mate by forming a heart shape with their bodies. The male appears to be in position but the female is not. I wonder if she was refusing to mate or just struggling to- they were flying and sat like this for some time.

Time for today’s deer photo which is a roe deer stag near the River Avon.

I was in Wimborne looking at the River Allen during the week and noticed lots of fish swimming around. They were floating facing upstream, presumably picking up food that was heading their direction. I tried to take some photos which proved rather difficult.

It’s so difficult to tell from a distance and through the water, even though the river is quite clear. Having looked at the fish species which are in the river I think this may be a brown trout but I’m not confident of that.

More locally I found a fungus growing at the bottom of the tree which I later identified as a Spindle Toughshank (Collybia fusipes/ Gymnopus fusipes).

This fungus attacks tree roots so it’s presence is not good for the beech tree it has appeared on.

We found something intriguing in the garden today. We had some bags of mulch which have been waiting to be used and found these mysterious jelly-like eggs.

It’s very difficult to identify these but in all likelihood they are mollusc eggs, probably slugs. There’s only one way to find out though so I’ve set up a jar for them to develop in and I’ll be able to see what emerges. They appear to be entirely clear though so I wonder if they weren’t fertilised but only time will tell.

Finally, I can report that the swallows in the webcam nest I was following have now fledged, much as I imagined. I’m not sure exactly when they left but I think it was probably Thursday morning.