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)
