Belvide Reservoir - 26 Jan 19

A few photos from my visit to Belvide today.

More than 500 geese here today: here are just three of the many Canada Geese coming and going.

The geese flocks need to be searched to find any ‘strays’. This hybrid does not count! The bill suggests Greylag Goose: the white face and chin suggests Canada Goose as does the body tone.

And another. The Greylag influence seems less obvious here. I am sure this bird has been seen around the Priorslee area – not yet this year where goose numbers have been below ‘normal’.

A pair of Gadwall feeding. On the drake note the all-black bill, the small white speculum and the black and chestnut in the wing, most easily seen in flight.

Here we see the bill of the duck more clearly and the brown scapulars on the drake. At a distance the sleeping drake behind looked more like a stone.

I wonder why they are called Goldeneyes? A drake here.

An immature Grey Heron – an adult would be showing a white crown and an all (or mostly) pink/orange bill.

This Great Crested Grebe seems to have caught a good size fish – a Mirror Carp.

Now to eat it ...

Well that didn’t work. Have to rearrange it.

Perhaps this is the way

To my eye this is not going to work at all. The bird did indeed seem to give up.

A quartet of waders: three (Common) Snipe on the left and a lone Golden Plover on the right.

Looking rather more alert here we get some perspective on the size of Golden Plover against the drake Mallard.

There were >1000 Lapwing present – great to see flocks of this size. Here are a few of them in flight.

One coming in to land, undercarriage down.

  

And an interloper – an Oystercatcher showing its long orange bill.

Blue Tits look rather fierce from this angle.

Looks like Spring is on the way with all the Hazel catkins.

This was the best I could do for a very mobile Marsh Tit. Separation from Willow Tit is not easy. This bird was calling and thus I am sure of its identity. Here the wing appears to show the ‘pale panel’ (caused by the pale edges to the primaries) that is supposed to be diagnostic of Willow Tit! What we can see is that the black ‘bib’ is neat – on a Willow Tit it would spread out somewhat at the bottom. Similarly the black nape does not spread down the side of the neck. Call / song are much the easiest and most reliable way to separate these species.

Always cute – a Long-tailed Tit. Bird-ringing is done here – and this bird is showing its ring.

Are they related to Badgers?

This species also amongst the Hazel catkins.

Another set of views of Tree Sparrow. As previously noted the plumage of males and female of this species are identical – in scientific terms their plumage is monomorphic. There probably is some size / weight difference but this is not detectable with the human eye.

They are quite cute.

The back-pattern showing well.

Two birds.

And my best ‘portrait’.

A rather washed-out female Chaffinch.

A male Reed Bunting. the remaining white specks in the crown will soon be lost to show the jet-black crown and bib of the breeding plumage.

And here is a female showing the same basic pattern in brown.

(Ed Wilson)

Belvide Reservoir - 22 Jan 19

Today I paid a visit to West Midlands Bird Club Reserve at Belvide, some 5 miles over the border in to Staffordshire. Access to the Reserve is strictly by permit only with all access gates and hides requiring key-codes to access. Information about the sightings here and Belvide Reservoir itself can be found here.

One of the reasons to visit at the moment – a Red-necked Grebe. None too easy to see in the UK, especially inland: this bird has been present since before the New Year. Rather distant here though we can see all the key features: slightly smaller than a Great Crested Grebe; always with a dark neck – more dusky than red in winter; with an obviously yellow bill.

A nice group of ducks: from the left drake Wigeon; drake Pochard (foreground); duck Wigeon; drake Mallard; another drake Pochard.

Three drake and two duck Wigeon.

Goldeneye is not too easy to see wintering in the Telford area – the Ellesmere lakes are the most reliable. Here a fine drake.

And a duck. The head-shape is very distinctive and these birds can be recognised at long range by their shape alone.

Something I cannot recall having seen too often: Cormorants displaying.

They were quite noisy too.

A quick cuddle? The more adult bird on the left looks a bit concerned. The bird on the right is an immature showing much brown in the plumage, but strangely little white on the belly.

A fine-looking Grey Heron. An immature – an adult would have a white forehead; and there would be no contrast between the mantle and wing feathers.

A contrasting pair: a Little Egret on the left; an adult winter Lesser Black-backed Gull on the right, this bird showing a lot of head-streaking: some do in winter.

The Little Egret wandered across the bund to show off its yellow feet.

Lapwing were typically flighty: here a group come back to land.

And one in close-up.

At the SOS reserve at Venus Pool I am used to see majestic male Pheasants. This shows the females are rather splendid too.

A different bird.

And here a very pale female with a rather strange male. Usually known as Common Pheasant or just Pheasant an older name is Ring-necked Pheasant because males show a white collar. Not this bird though. Neither does it show much of the red wattle behind the eye, the smudge we can see perhaps indicates that it is an immature still to acquire a wattle. On the other hand pheasants have been bred and cross-bred for shooting and the cage bird trade, so perhaps it is just a hybrid.

 Another view of him.

A bird that is increasingly hard to see – Tree Sparrow. 20 years ago there were feeders outside former farm cottages a few miles outside Newport where this species could be seen. When the residents moved there was no more food and I have seen none locally for many years.

Unlike House Sparrows both males and females of this species look identical with rufous crown and black cheek mark.

(Ed Wilson)