Venus Pool - 20 Jan 20

Another visit to the public hides at the SOS Reserve of Venus Pool was very rewarding.

One of the earliest returning birds are Shelduck. These all go to the Heligoland Bight in the North Sea to moult and then return to look for breeding sites – often in Rabbit burrows! Here is a drake with the sizeable swelling at the base of the bill.

Shelduck are dabbling ducks, capable of reaching vegetation at some depth!

Shelduck can be confused with the similarly coloured drake Shoveler. Here a sleeping Shelduck and (parts of) seven drake and one duck Shoveler (and a drake Mallard). Shelduck are much bigger!

There were four Shelduck present and at least two were drakes that were none too pleased to see each other.

The weather was too dull to freeze the action but you get the idea!

Most drakes are now in full breeding plumage. A drake (Common) Teal here

And compare and contrast with the drake Shoveler.

A pair of Shoveler doing what they like to do – spinning around each other to stir up food from the bottom to filter the goodies with those strange bills.

Not ideal conditions for photographing flying birds – two drake and one duck Shoveler show their blue forewings, much more pronounced on drakes.

Back they come ... with an additional drake.

Three highlights today: one was this group of Wigeon feeding on the grass and getting closer and closer the longer we stayed in the main public bird-hide.

Here a pair with the duck on the left.

A duck here. The white belly on both sexes aids flight identification of groups.

Food!

A different duck and a quite-different looking bird. The different tone is only partly due to the angle of the light. Note also the white around the eye. Rather a puzzle as I initially assumed the bird was showing its nictating membrane that are used by birds to clean the eye and can be used to protect the eye in flight. This bird looked like this throughout and it only covers part of the eye. So not sure what / why.

And another duck.

Not all drakes had completed their moult – perhaps first-winter birds? The yellow head stripe is beginning to show as are the vermiculations along the flanks.

Another view of the same bird.

A different drake, also still to complete its moult.

Another yet another different drake.

Reminder: a ‘proper’ drake...

... head-on.

And just look at the detail of those long feathers – grey one side, with a white shaft and white-fringed black the other side. The barred feathers are pretty impressive too.

A group of Wigeon takes off. On the right-most bird we can see the yellow crown and the white in the forewing shown by drakes. A good view of the green speculum on the lower middle bird.

Not a melanistic Wigeon but a Coot lurking in with three drakes, the presumed first-winter in the foreground. Rather surprised that there was no aggression between these.

This Coot finds it amusing.

I hope that Lapwings get good reception from their antenna!

And again.

Very subtle colours – sun to gloss the green would have been nice.

A Common Snipe apparently being chased up the bank by a pair of Gadwall. Alert like this it really shows the length of the bill.

Highlight #2 was this adult Common Gull – unusual in this part of Shropshire and my first here for at least five years. With a slightly darker mantle and slightly larger than the accompanying Black-headed Gulls. Note the greeny-yellow bill with, in winter only, a black band; also the pale greeny legs and the dark eye.

“its all very boring here”

Here showing its wing-pattern. The white on the wing-tip is quite different from any Herring Gull-type and is remarkably similar on the underwing making it stand out at long range in flight.

And here we see that underwing pattern.

When I next looked another Common Gull had turned up. Note the slightly different tone in the bill. Note sure why – a second winter bird perhaps, though the white spots in the folded wings would suggest a full adult.

Highlight #3! Around the bird feeders this male Sparrowhawk arrived and stayed amongst the twigs. The rufous barring tells us this is a male. However the barring is less dense than it would be on an adult male and the brown tips on the flight feathers suggest this is in fact a first-year male.

“Are you looking at me?”

It was very alert to all that was going on around it – there were dozens of tits that had ‘forgotten’ it was there. It was looking this way ...

... and that.

A careful reposition in the hide to get a clearer view did not go unnoticed!

They do look fierce! Note the white spots on the back.

This Blue Tit was blissfully unaware of the potential danger.

(Ed Wilson)

Wood Lane and Ellesmere - 12 Jan 20

Wood Lane

Wood Lane is a small Shropshire Wildlife Trust Reserve near Ellesmere. You need to be a member to obtain the codes to access the hides. For its small size it attracts an excellent range of species with water, marshy areas, reeds and adjacent woodland.

Star of the show – and he knew it – was this drake Egyptian Goose. The sexes are similar but with what was obviously a pair present it was clear who was boss. Almost a ‘rag doll’ appearance, so unlikely are the markings.

Here. hauled-out of the water, note the strong legs as well as the large white panel in the wing. (Try and ignore the dead twigs sticking out the top of its head or pretend it has antenna)

Both the white and chestnut in the wing show as it preens.

Here he wanders off. In the UK Egyptian Geese originally escaped from wildfowl collections. There is now a self-sustaining breeding population in many parts of the UK. Pairs have been present in Shropshire for at least 15 years, though numbers remain small.

Cormorants arrived for what seemed to be a pre-roost gathering – many roost on the island at nearby Ellesmere. Here is an immature arriving. The extent of the paleness suggests this might be a first-winter bird. It takes several years for the all-black plumage to appear.

Here a darker bird touches down – they always make a bit of a splash as despite putting their webbed feet forward it is the long tail that enters the water first.

A line-up of six birds. The distinctive ‘bill raised’ profile is quite different from the more horizontal posture of Shag, though that salt-water specialist is unlikely in Shropshire. Note the left-most bird has white breeding plumes and extended bare skin at the base of the bill. The immature seen earlier is second on the left.

With the colour accentuated by the reflection of sun-lit reeds in the water this Moorhen stands out. The red shield is brightest as breeding time approaches.

The colour on the back of Lapwings varies with the angle of the light – not as much as shown here. The distinctive pale bird in the middle also shows much brighter legs. I have seen this, or a similar, bird before but cannot for the life of me remember where or when – several years ago I think.

From one of the hides there are close views of birds waiting their turn at the feeders. Here a female Chaffinch. Note the pale neck collar and the grey shoulder – features only really obvious on very close views. Just a hint of the greenish rump.

Meanwhile high overhead in the Alders Siskins were busy feeding on the seeds in the cones. A male here with the black crown.

“Are you looking at me?”

Ellesmere

I then moved on to Ellesmere where all manner of feral and hybrid ducks and geese vie for food from the visitors. The presence of these birds attracts real ‘wild’ birds. An interesting duo of Tufted Duck here. The left-hand bird is a duck; the right-hand bird is far too white along the flanks for a duck but nowhere near as white as most drakes I have seen recently. I conclude it is a first-winter drake yet to acquire its full breeding plumage – it should do so within weeks.

Another duck I had to check with the literature. Should a duck Goldeneye have so much white showing on the flanks? Or is it a moulting first-winter drake? The answer is given away by the yellow tip to the bill – it is a duck Goldeneye. So it must have unusually bright flanks.

At about half-a-mile range but we can still this is a real drake Goldeneye looking very ‘bright white’ and black with the distinctive white oval face-patch.

Perhaps from the pre-roost at Wood Lane this Cormorant shows how easy it is to land on a tree with webbed feet.

Or perhaps not!

A feature of Ellesmere is the size of the gull-roost – many thousands of birds. Most arrive well after dusk so you are spared too many gull photos. However one of the specialities is the number of Common Gulls that roost – a species that is decidedly uncommon in south and east Shropshire. Here is a second-winter bird. Things to look out for are the rather thin greenish bill with a black band in winter; the ‘collar’ of spotting also only in winter; the dark eye at all ages; and the extent of white at the tips of the outer primaries.

One feature I use to spot this species at long range is that the extent of white on the wing-tip is almost the same on the underwing as on the upperwing. This shows surprisingly well on flying birds. It is nowhere near so obvious on any other gull species frequently seen in the UK.

(Ed Wilson)