“With slightly better weather today – more sun, albeit with a few light showers – I spent a while in my pocket-sized back garden taking a few photos of the local birds.
First a few bird notes from today
- A very distant Cormorant probably flying to the big nest site at Aqualate Mere, less about five miles away as the Cormorant flies.
- One of the Sparrowhawks was around causing the usual panic amongst the Feral Pigeons. The Wood Pigeons tend to ignore it.
- A few Buzzards in the thermals over fields distantly to the north.
- Early morning (c.08:00 onwards) I logged a trio of Black-headed Gulls; a quartet of Lesser Black-backed Gulls; and two small groups of Wood Pigeons totalling ten birds all flying very high NE. Likely these were migrating. The Black-headed Gulls were the first I had seen for a week, with the birds that spend the winter around the estate having long-gone. They do breed near Aqualate Mere though.
Now some photos:
There are well-over 50 Feral Pigeons in and around the centre of Newport. Not infrequently they sit on local roofs, as evidenced by this trio of multi-coloured individuals. The closest bird is ringed and presumably someone’s Racing Pigeon that has decided feeding on the scraps in Newport is an easier life.
One dark specimen in flight
A motley collection of flying Feral Pigeons. Most show the distinctive black bar on the inner wing, though on some birds it is obscured by other patterning.
This group shows the most extreme individual – an almost all-white bird with some strange black patches (all flying past the antenna of the local radio ham).
And here is the white individual again from underneath – the lowest bird. It is leading a charmed life. A predator such as a Peregrine would single such an obvious bird to home in on it – easy to avoid getting confused as birds scatter in all directions.
Every morning and evening c.100 Wood Pigeons fly from and to a roost site to the NW of me. During the day up to six birds sit on roofs, poles and in trees and attempt to lure, usually disinterested, females with their calls. The calls do get a bit wearing after a few hours. Here one on a TV aerial (antenna?) has a good shake. Seems to need its eyes closed to do so.
“who said that?”
Another individual on a telephone pole. What will this species do when no-one needs TV aerials or land-lines?
During the day Jackdaws are flying around all the time and occasionally settle on roofs – as here. Note the staring white eye. I think the grey in the wing is unusual. Need to find another to check. While they do nest in chimneys in older houses near the town centre and they hang about there all day, at dusk more than 50, all neatly in pairs, fly off to roost in conifers a mile away from me.
Next door are reconstructing their lawn and this male Blackbird was taking advantage of the disturbed ground to feed. I assume this is a first-year bird – not glossy black but with some brown tones in the wings and noticeable white fringes to the belly feathers almost making it look spotty.
Likely the same Blackbird on my roof.
I initially struggled to photograph this Harlequin Ladybird (
Harmonia axyridis) as it was on a white plastic window ledge and hard to get the proper contrast. It is of the form conspicua with a single red spot in each elytron (plural elytra: hardened forewing on a beetle). The red spot sometimes has a black centre.
After I engaged brain and decided my hand would make a lesser contrasting background ..... The white on the face separates this very variable ladybird from almost all other ladybird species in the UK.
The front of the insect is slightly blurred here. What we can see is that the strange white pattern on the back is actually spider web and not a mark on the insect.
This was the only insect I managed to photo today. There were many quite small dancing flies all with legs dangling like St Mark's Flies (
Bibio marci). Despite the scientific name ‘
marci’ these are larger flies emerge with amazing precision around St Mark’s Day – 25 April. Perhaps another Bibio species?
(Ed Wilson)
