Another set of photos from a visit to the West Midlands Bird Club reserve at Belvide today.
A Canada Goose cruises by.
A drake Tufted Duck passing by with ‘tuft’ streaming in the wind.
This one powering in for a landing.
Now with everything extended for splashdown.
And a pair doing the same.
One pair of Oystercatchers laid but a single egg. Here is the day-old hatchling with one of its parents.
The proud parents, one with a tasty(?) morsel.
The result of another food-gathering sortie. Looks as if this bird needs to cut its toe-nails!
Touch-down.
For scale here is a Common Sandpiper alongside a duck Tufted Duck. The diagnostic white extending up the shoulder is obvious on the sandpiper.
At extreme range and not as sharp as I would like but clearly shows the diagnostic dark wedge in the outer primaries that separates this species from possible confusion, but less likely, species of Arctic and Roseate Terns. There are other differences of course but flying birds at a distance are always challenging.
An instructive trio of summer Black-headed Gulls. The passing bird is an adult. On the water to the right is a first-summer bird with a complete dark hood and only aged by the brown in the folded wing. At the other extreme is a first-summer bird with almost no more black on the head than it would have had all winter.
This first summer Black-headed Gull has been in the wars – surprising it can fly anything other than circles. Even the tail is damaged.
In some ways typical arguments at a Black-headed Gull colony ... except that the calling bird looking to snatch the nesting material is in fact a second summer Mediterranean Gull with small black wing-tip marks on otherwise all-white wings. Note too the redder bill.
And here we see the much brighter legs and more extensive and blacker head markings.
More arguments – well probably not. The flying Black-headed Gull (more or less hiding the Mediterranean Gull) hovered like this for what seemed like several minutes ...
... Without much change in posture ...
...Even leading to a ‘foot in mouth’ problem – or was it toe-sucking as a prelude to ....
...What they were after all along.
Male Blackcaps can be a struggle to photo as they often, but now always, sing from within vegetation. Females, with brown caps, are always more of a challenge. Hawthorn buds in front of her.
This is a Sedge Warbler. Often in the same habitat as Reed Warbler and many people find the song confusing. Sedge has a less deliberate and more varied song. It is also often given from an exposed perch – as here – or even during a brief song-flight. Reed Warbler is much harder to see, singing whilst staying hidden in the vegetation – it is after all not much to look at, lacking even the supercilium of the Sedge.
What I had for breakfast was ...
... And what I am about to have for lunch is ... in front of the Sedge Warbler are four St Mark's Flies or Hawthorn Flies (
Bibio marci). They characteristically fly with their legs hanging down. They very typically emerge on or around 25th April – St Mark’s day. These were two days early and perhaps should be St George’s flies!
You get two species for the price of one. Here we see that Sedge Warbler had faint crown stripes and an unmarked warm brown rump. A Tree Sparrow looks on – a much chunkier bird.
My first Comma butterfly this year. This was a ‘safety’ shot before I changed position to a better angle. As it transpired my only chance as it flew off.
A Speckled Wood butterfly.
Take care in the hides if you are an arachnophobe! I think this is a Garden Spider (
Arameus diadematus).
(Ed Wilson)
