Pulborough Brooks

Carrion Crow preening.

Carrion Crow alert.

Moorhen

Moorhen again.

Okay maybe I lied about getting up to date with the posts but there we go. Right. RSPB reserves and particularly Pulborough Brooks that I went to yesterday. It is a large reserve in the village of Pulborough with wet grassland, ponds, woodland, hedgerows, meadows and marshland. The grassland is managed by grazing cattle and rabbits that keep back the scrub and keep the grass short. There are herds of Fallow deer (does and older fawns at the moment) that roam the place, hundreds of Lapwings (Northern Lapwings, Peewits, call them what you will), many Mallards (males in eclipse are the most numerous at the moment), Shovellers, Pintail, Shelducks, lads of other wildfowl, Goldfinches, tits, Redshank, godwits, Snipe, Carrion Crows and Rooks Moorhens and Coots and all sorts of epic legend including the MARSH HARRIER, one of Britain's RAREST BREEDING BIRDS. No, I didn't get to see a Marsh Harrier but they are there. My highlight therefore was a Hobby chasing dragonflies. There is a fantastic shop where you can try and buy (unexpected rhyme) scopes and binoculars as well as tripods to put them on. There is this big ENOURMOOOOOOOOOOUS thing looking like a pair of giant white binoculars out side the shop that you can look through. You can buy bid food including live mealworms, feeders, nesting-boxes and inevitably the souvenirs like the Singing Bird plush toys that sing that bird's song when you press them. I became a MEMBER OF RSPB PHOENIX (that's the teenagers bit of the RSPB) which is epic. Sorry about the pictures being all wonkaloid. They didn't want to go in the proper places. BYE and make sure you go to one of the RSPB reserves this year. :)

Hobby and a plane.

Hobby over the hedge.

Fallow does.

more Fallow does.

The Hampshire County Bird Recorder

Hey peeps! Two days ago me and my dad were just walking down the promenade on Southsea beach with my dad, not for seawatching or anything, I hadn't even brung my bins and camera, just scoffing ice-creams and rock. A flock of Black-headed Gulls were feeding on the beach just next to South Parade Pier (we tried going on the Pier but some idiot has closed it down so only people who pay to go fishing on there are allowed on. You can't go under it anymore either.). I had noticed an evident distributional change in gulls: On and around the Canoe Lake (where we were about an hour before) was dominated by Herring-gulls (and a tonne of Feral Pigeons) and only very occasionally would a Black-headed Gull appear, whereas by the sea the scene was dominated by the Black-headed Gulls, among which I found this:

These photos were taken with my dad's phone camera (crap) so are not very clear. So, what do you make that bird? It's bill was muddy so I couldn't really see the colour. I was thinking either Common or Ring-billed Gull. I was secretly hoping Ring-billed (no offence Common Gulls) but either would be good because Common Gulls are not actually common (you get them only generally in Scotland and Northern Ireland) and Ring-billed Gulls are an American species that are regular vagrants to the UK. I emailed the Hampshire Bird Recorder (see the BTO website to find your county's Bird Recorder) Keith Betton about my "find". He accepted my format of conveying the information:

Species: Larus canus, Common Gull

Quantity of individuals: one single bird 

Age/sex: fully adult (showing no juvenile plumage), sex unknown

Plumage: full breeding plumage

Location: just beside South Parade Pier, Southsea, Portsmouth

Other: among Black-headed Gulls, fairly heavy wind blowing inland, overcast sky, no sign of breeding/attempted breeding

Date: 15/08/13

The thing is, I forgot to put the date on there originally so I emailed it to him afterwards. He emailed back with this photo attached:

Keith Betton with a Red Kite chick.

If you are thinking what I was thinking you would be thinking "wow that's legend". Even more legend is he said this:

 I'm very lucky to get this close to a chick. If you'd like to see them close next year I can try to arrange it.

Too right I want to get close to them! Well next year look out for a post about Keith Betton and Red Kites! Then on Saturday (or Caturday if you're feline or Saturdog if you're canine) I went to Reading to see some of my family (my aunties and cousins and second-cousins all live in Reading) and there were Red Kites flying all over the place! They say they can just chuck chicken bones and the like on the lawn and the Kites swoop down and take it off! Lucky people. They say "oh yeah, the kites. They are everywhere aren't they?" No! Conclusion of today's post: Reading is awesome because of it's Red Kites.   

Bye peeps! I'll post again soon. 

Eggs and Nests - Two Waterfowl and a Rail

Sorry for not posting for ages peeps. The following information on the Mute Swan at the Millpond is from when I started this post about two months ago (I know, I am pretty lame at updating the blog) so is not really relevant now but hey-ho. Time for another Eggs and Nests post, this time with waterbirds that you can see on almost any patch of British freshwater. Two waterfowl and a rail - the Mute Swan, the Mallard and the Eurasian Coot. On the Emsworth Millpond (this place featured in one of my earliest posts entitled "A Trip to the Mill Pond") a pair of Mute Swans (I say a pair but I never really saw the cob. I think he died :( but I hope not) nested. They made their nest out of the vast amount of litter around the area because there was not much else. I got a good few feathers from there! The brood originally consisted of five cygnets but now only one remains and is still fairly small, probably due the relative lack of aquatic vegetation there on which swans feed. A pair of Coot (I have seen both of these) also nested on the Millpond, right in the middle though! The photos of the Mute Swans and Coot on the Millpond are by me. Here comes nest facts!

Mute Swan eggs by David Green

A more typical Mute Swan nest. Photo
by Michael W. Richards.

The Mute Swan and her nest at the
Emsworth Millpond where the nest
is partly built from garbage because
this is more plentiful
 than vegetation there. :(

Cygnus olor - Mute Swan nest/eggs

One of the cygnets from the "Millpond
 Five" when all of them actually existed.
The other four were on the other side
of their mum.

The Mute Swan has a very large "volcano nest", a high  mound of vegetation with a  "crater", a shallow depression, in the middle. This crater is where the eggs (up to ten) are laid. It is lined with down for warmth and is slightly larger than the pen's body. The cob provides the materials for the pen who builds the nest from them. They share incubation and brooding duties. The eggs range from pale cream to light
brown. the cygnets when they hatch are dingy brown and white below. When an all-white cygnet pops up as they sometimes do, it is known as a "Polish" cygnet and will grow up into a white so-called "Polish Swan".

Occasionally a Mallard will
nest in a treehole as this photo
by Alan Pulley shows. Take
a look at his blog Birds 'n Such.

Anas platyrhynchos - Mallard nest/eggs  (yes the text went a bit weird because of the stupid picture placing thingumabob)

The nest of the Mallard is well-concealed in vegetation, though can be out in the open if cover is not available. The nest is a cup, roughly-made from straw, grass, twigs and leaves. It is lined generously with down plucked from the duck's breast. Clutch size varies from approximately 8 to 13 eggs. The eggs are fairly variable in colour, ranging from very pale green to turquoise or blue. We all know the beautifully maternal and quite frankly adorable sight of a mother Mallard leading her few-day-old brood of black and yellow pompoms  out into the water in a perfect 

line. AWWW SQUEE!

Mallard nest with 14 eggs by Mike Wilkes.

A Mallard leading her brood out
into the water by John Cancalosi.

Fulica atra - Eurasian Coot nest/eggs

Coots can be encouraged to nest on
artificial nesting-platforms.
 Photo again by Paul Dooley.

Coot clutch by Paul Dooley

Coots will build piles of vegetation on open water. This one
is like the one at the Millpond that the lost photo is of. Paul Dooley.

Okay, how annoying, I can't find my Coot nest photo :( so I had to find someone else's. I found Harefield Wildlife Images by Paul Dooley. Every photo here comes from his post "Four Different Coots on Four Very Different Nests" which focuses on the variety of places Coots can nest in. Coots build nests of dead reeds and water vegetation (or out of garbage where it is more readily available) in the variety of places in the photos. They lay up to 10 white speckled eggs and may lay and raise 2 or 3 broods a season, reflecting the high mortality rate (a Coot chick is a welcome snack for various herons and raptors).  Coots can be brutal with their young in a time of food shortage. If one of the smaller chicks (that isn't getting any food because the parents always give it to the big strong ones) begs his mum for food, she will either be very generous and give him something, bite him until he stops begging and starves to death or bite him until he dies so he won't want more food.

A tidier Coot's nest than the open-water mound, hidden in the reeds.
If I were a hen Coot (and what a beautiful bird I would be!) I would
personally prefer this nest, no offence to the other Coots who build
mounds in open water; your handiwork (or more "beakiwork") is still
very fine. Paul Dooley.

The most typical view of a nesting Coot, well-concealed
in Bulrushes (Great Reedmace) or
other waterside plants. Paul Dooley. 

 Thanks for reading the blog peoples! I will get a bit more up to date with the posting and stop doing such immensely long "Bird Facts!"! Because of my mentally over-the-top brain, what was meant to be a one-sentence fact about birds with a photo to go with it has turned into some mega info post thingumabob! :-| BYEEEEE!

"Bird Facts!"

Time for a quick

"Bird Facts!"

This one is about South Island Notornis. The Notornis or Takahe (Notornis hochstetten, recently changed to Porphyrio hochstetten) is a large flightless rail (Rallidae) native to New Zealand. They are very rare and in the late 19th century were declared extinct, only to be rediscovered in 1948 by Geoffrey Orbell. 

Notornis/Porphyrio hochstetten by Glen Webber

A close (extant) relative of the South Island Notornis is the Purple Swamphen (known by the name Porphyrio porphyrio). Other common names you may know this bird by are African Purple Moorhen, Purple Coot, Sultana Bird (from the French name "taleve sultane") and Purple Gallinule. Do not confuse them with the related American Purple Gallinule (or Lillytrotter), Porphyrio martinicus. 

Purple Swamphen by Glen Threlfo (Double Glen!) 

Another relative, this time extinct, is the North Island Notornis or Moho (Notornis/Porphyrio mantelli), known only from skeletal remains, the name of which commemorates the naturalist and civil servant Walter Mantell. 

Notornis mantelli

Bye people! You decide whether you like Notornis or Takahe, Notornis or Porphyrio but I like Notornis both ways! More posts soon. 

Garden News

Today I'm just going to give you an update on what's been going on in my garden. The name "Birding in the Garden" is slightly invalid now really as I seem to talk more about stuff outside the garden! I am just giving you information about the changes made to the bird garden. Well, here goes.

There has been a pair of Blue Titmice nesting in one of the trees outside the nursery of Sharps Copse School (just outside my back gate) and today the parents brought their fledged young out to feed at my feeding-station. First I should really inform you of the changes I have made to the garden in the sense of bird-feeders as this photo....

that I have used at least twice is from 2010 and things really have changed since then. The feeding-station now looks like this...
 (photo taken today)

The perspex seed tube feeder in the corner (on the 2010 photo) broke in 2012 but has been replaced by a steel and wire-mesh peanut feeder. The pear-shaped peanut feeder is now hanging on a bracket off the shed wall. The fat ball on the right in the 2010 picture has been replaced by a coconut shell filled with millet seed and suet and the fat ball on the left has been replaced by a homemade milk bottle feeder. I took photos of each feeder separately as some are not visible in the photo:

steel and wire-mesh peanut feeder hung on bird-table

nyjer seed feeder hanging off bird-table

homemade milk bottle feeder hanging off bird-table

plastic bottle with adapter hanging off bird table but tied round  the pole holding up the roof because  there was no more room to put hooks.

coconut shell filled with millet seed and suet, already partly eaten by Blue Titmice and Starlings. They go through about one of these a week.

fat ball feeder hanging off the shed wall, already partly nommed  by Blue Titmice. I put this out so the Blue Titmice don't get deprived of suet food by the Starlings, one because the Starlings have scoffed it all, and two because the aggressive Starlings scare the titmice who are more shy.

the pear-shaped peanut feeder is now hanging outside the shed.

Well there's what the feeders are like now. The Blue Titmice particularly like the fat balls when the fledglings are with them but when the adults are alone they like the coconut shell. Here are some photos of the tits feeding with their young.

I have a photo of one of the parents on the coconut too, taken three coconuts ago!

There have also been Starlings nesting near the house and the parents brought their young to the garden too. The idea of having a fat ball feeder as well as a coconut one is working. The Starlings are taking over the coconut a bit but the Blue Titmice still have the fat balls (which they now seem to be preferring). There were once three adult Starlings, spectacularly dressed in full breeding plumage, perched at different points around the top part of the garden. Two of them were the parents of the "local nest" and the other one was just hoping to claim territory. There was a big aerial fight between the Starlings with lots of screaming and squawking and scratching, the two parents coming out tops. I hoped feathers would fly so I would get one but none did. One of the adults can do car-alarm imitations! lol! Anyway, here's one of the juvenile Starlings feeding at the coconut, this time the current one.

There is also a Robin coming to the table and the floor (the seed sprinkled on the patio) and sometimes to coconut (never the fat balls) that I am close to hand-taming. Yesterday I was putting a handful of mealworms onto the table platform when the Robin came down and touched my hand with it's claw while stuffing it's face with mealworms that were still in my hand (!!).  Here's a pic from earlier in the year of the Robin when it was slightly less tamed.

So there's the significant garden bird news. Oh, one last bit. There was a Magpie dispute in the trees outside the school too. Lots of cackling and high-pitched noises.

BYE!

AWWC (amazeballs)

Sorry it's been so long. The real day out was on 18th May!! Stupid me. Before the main post starts, because it is the breeding season (it's too late for birds to breed in them now but for next year) I will put my nesting-boxes poster up again:

No, I can't draw female Shovellers. DEAL WITH IT.

Here comes a bit of epicness; go there yourself to EXPERIENCE THE COMPLETE EPICNESS. The first thing is a drawing by me inspired by this place. There was not Whooper Swans there but I thought "Mute among Whoopers" sounds better than "Mute among Bewick's" (there was Bewick's Swans there) and plus I don't have a clue what the plural of Bewick's is. Whooper Swans make more noise than Bewick's as well so it adds to the whole graceful silent Mute theme.

"The Graceful Silence of the Mute among the Whoopers" by me! I think the Whooper in the right corner went particularly well.

I scanned it with the scanner and the colours will have been a bit different to the original which I no longer have because I put it with my late great-grandmother Mary, may she rest in peace. :-(

There is a poem by me to go with this drawing:

The Graceful Silence of the Mute among the Whoopers  

Vibrant curling notes

Winding around the tongues of the Whoopers,

Suddenly out of the open bills fly

Out – and whoooooOOP! – curl, twist and coil

Out of the bill fly to summon more for the wedge*.

But out in the middle,

Passing through like royalty,

A Mute is silently going.

The Whoopers humbly back away to clear a path.

No noise, no curling notes,

No sound comes out from this bill.

Gracefully gliding through the water, bigger and sleeker

Than any Whooper could be.

A flock of swans is called a "wedge" did yo know? (that was a deliberate yo) I think I told you that before but WHO CARES?

Now, you may be wondering what place I am on about. I mentioned it on the last post. The Arundel Wildfowl and Wetlands Centre (WWT)!!!! Here are some of the wildfowl species there (that I can remember). There was so many and loads I did not even know existed.

Trumpeter Swan (Cygnus buccinator) with the best Latin name ever for some reason.
Coscoroba Swan (Coscoroba coscoroba) YES I KEEP MENTIONING THEM. DEAL WITH IT.
Rosybill aka Rosy-billed Pochard, Rosybill Duck (Netta peposaca)
Mandarin (Duck) (Aix galericulata)
Wood Duck aka Carolina Duck (Aix sponsa)
Magpie Goose (Anseranas semipalmata) Anseranas is Anser and Anas (goose and duck) stuck together because it is neither a goose nor a duck but somewhere in between! CLEVER.
Greater Scaup or just Scaup. North Americans call it the Bluebill (Aythya marila)
Harlequin Duck called by North Americans the Lords and Ladies Duck (Histrionicus histrionicus)
Falcated Teal aka Falcated Duck (Anas falcata)
Cinnamon Teal (Anas cyanoptera) Why don't they call the Blue-winged Teal that Latin name as cyanoptera means "blue-winged" in Latin?
Plus the inevitable Columba livia var. domestica, the Town Pigeon aka Feral Dove or Feral Pigeon.   

Okay. The list will get too big so I will now show you some of the photos! 

Mallard podgy couple

"I can haz grain?" Mallard duck

Trumpeter Swan on nest 

Black-necked Swan

White Call-duck and Blue Duck (the White Call-duck is a breed of domestic Mallard and the Blue Duck is an actual species)

Falcated Teal

Rosybill

Feral Pigeon

Add caption

Tufted Duck 

Eider 

Rosybill

Wigeon washing (unexpected alliteration)

The inevitable Moorhen

Feral Pigeon photobomb! The duck is a Mallard

Pidge-Podge!

Eider

Mandarin drakes

Mallard

Mute Swan

Herring-gull (this is one of about five photos of the same bird in the same place, I love them so much!)

Wood Duck

Add caption

Goldeneye

Mute Swan

Scaup

weird pattern Feral Pigeon

Black-necked Swan

the White Call-duck again

There is this hut with lots of dried plants and things made with them in it. There are signs and labels telling you about the medicinal and other uses for the plants.

Mallard with ducklings

Trumpeter Swan (holy crap so big!)

"CRO-COK! a Pheasant that made every one jump

Scaly-sided Merganser in the diving ducks enclosure

Rosybill with hidden bill

Scaly-sided Merganser again

Female Wood Duck

Black-headed Gull on a nest

Mallard with ducklings

another Pheasant

Finally! The first (and only(!!!!)) Wood Pigeon of that trip!

Common Tern

Mandarin

White-faced Duck

Coscoroba Swan (yes it is the same photo! DEAL WITH IT!) 

Mute Swan

Rosybill

Mut Swan

Magpie Goose

Red Shoveller

White-faced Ducks

Jackdaw taking off