We visited RSPB Lakenheath for the first time back in snowy February. They were just setting up a photography hide with naturalistic perches and feeders and a reed bed for Bunts, Tits, Kingfishers, and the like. In fact, first shot I got there was of a beautiful Kingfisher who popped in stared at the camera and disappeared within the space of about ten seconds. This visit, we had numerous Tits (Great, Blue, and Marsh), Reed Bunts, Goldfinches, and a few others, and a male Great Spotted Woodpecker, but did no spotted Kingfisher at this site this time.
Below Little Egret (Egretta garzetta)Â fishing
Great Tits (Parus major) feeding
Reed Bunting (Emberiza schoeniclus) bunting
Juvenile Goldfinch (Carduelis carduelis) just starting its facepainting
There were plenty of caterpillars of Aglais io, the European Peacock, writhing on a nettle patch near New Fen Hide at RSPB Lakenheath. They are late, as this species usually lays eggs in June from which caterpillars soon emerge. Despite their defensive spines, many of them are eaten by parasitic wasps.
Meanwhile, we also saw all three of the site’s celebrity spiders: Wasp Spider, Crowend Orb Weaver, Marbled Orb Weaver. More about those in this post. But missed the Common Heath butterfly (plenty of Small and Large Whites, and one Comma).
The Toadflax (Butter and Eggs plant, Linaria vulgaris) was dying off but there were a few flowers still in bloom
There were countless airborne dragonflies and quite surprising not to see the local Hobbies (Falco subbuteo) chasing and eating this fast food supply, especially those distracted by their mating rituals.
More snaps from today’s trip to RSPB Lakenheath here.
I always assumed that the chess piece we know as a “rook”, which resembles a castle was named for the bird, there being some link with ravens in towers and turrets, perhaps.
But, it’s nothing of the sort…
Â
The word was coined around 1300 and comes from Old French “roc”, which in turn comes from the Arabic “rukhkh”, and that from a Persian word “rukh”, which may in turn come from the Indian name for the piece, “rut”, from the Hindi “rath” meaning “chariot.”
Of course, if I’d known my chess history, I’d have known about the mediaeval game “shatranj” where the rook symbolizes a chariot. But, it might also represent a siege tower after that. The original Indian game had chaturanga meaning also meaning chariot, but the modern version of that game calls those pieces “elephant”. Some people call the rook a castle and “castling” is a chess manoeuvre involving two pieces (king and rook) swapping relative positions in a single move. Does any of that have anything to do with the name of the old coaching inn, “The Elephant and Castle”, for which the area of South London is named? Probably not. Although the E&C statue is of an elephant carrying what looks very much like a chess rook on its back and that is an early gaming piece in chess evolution.
Anyway, he name of the bird, on the other hand, the Rook, comes from Old English hroc, and is perhaps onomatopoeic of the bird’s raucous call, which is something of a croak, a word that comes from the Sanskrit “kruc” meaning to cry out. Moreover, a rook is a 16th century word for someone who cheats at cards or dice. The word “crook” itself, which you might think is somehow related, was originally a word specifically for a devilishly dishonest trick.
Of course, a word that was bandied about a lot during the US presidential elections was “crooked”, a term pertaining to someone cheating, but also simply meaning bent as in a shepherd’s crook. But, the word bent also means crooked in both senses, but someone hell-bent is determined to get what they want, perhaps by hook or by crook.
I have attempted to categorise and separate out the science, snaps, songs, and birds posts, so that you can focus on just one subject, there is lots of overlap. For example in a post about research into a particular species of bird where I have illustrated it using my own photos or in a song with lyrics inspired by a scientific principle or discovery, again where I may have illustrated the post with my photos (birds or otherwise). Hope it’s useful…
Gulls just want to have fun, A gull that can’t say no, Only gulls allowed, The it gull…
A real gull’s gull, Funny gull, Party gull, A daddy’s gull, One of the gulls, Good gull, Cover gull, Gull Friday, The gull next door, Couldn’t happen to a nicer gull…
Little gull’s room, That’s my gull, Working gull, Poor little rich gull, Big gull’s blouse, Call gull, Atta gull, What’s a gull supposed to do?, Guys and gulls…
A slip of a gull, Big gull pants, Old gull, Gull problems, Gull’s time of the month…
Poster gull, Page-three gull, Blue-eyed gull, Glamour gull, Same as the next gull…
Gulls’ night in, What are little gulls made of? Any other gull, Night out with the gulls…
More gulls and other birds and more in my Isles of Scilly gallery on Flickr. There are also my more serious blog posts about IOS with photos.
We went on a pelagic trip in the Isles of Scilly with Sapphire skipper Joe Pender, departing Hugh Town harbour, St Mary’s Island on 9th July 2018 at about 5pm. Within seconds we were being tailed by dozens of Herring Gull.
Engines were cut about an hour out to sea and the anglers aboard began flicking their rods to catch mackerel, which they did, a dozen or so quite quickly. Then the fishing for Blue Shark (Prionace glauca) began. An 83-year old angler hauled in the first (with a little assistance from crew and fellow anglers to get lines around and from under the boat). The catch was a 2.3 metre specimen, it was photographed, scientifically tagged*, and returned to the waves largely unscathed, but perhaps a little confused. I must admit, you could almost see the fear in its eyes while they were doing the weights and measures and shoving the tag under its skin!
Blue Shark, Prionace glauca
The older birdwatchers aboard jeered some of the subsequent efforts. But, by the end of the fishing it was a draw, 6 landed, 6 that got away.
Anyway, the birdwatching, was not quite the numbers game we had hoped for, but aside from the dozens of Herring Gull, we saw lots of Gannet, many over the boat and a distant flock diving on a patch of water where dolphins were also feeding. We had a few Fulmar and about the same number of Manx Shearwater (aka Manks Puffins).
The skipper called out another bird as it crossed our stern and I snapped at it as quickly as I could. I didn’t catch what it was at the time, I thought I heard him shout “Manxie!”. But, back home and on dryland with my laptop I could see it was a Skua that I’d photographed. The Facebook bird ID group called it out – it’s a Bonxie – a Great Skua (Stercorarius skua). Bonxie is a Shetland name for the bird probably a word of Norse origin. Skuas are piratical birds, they will steal food from other birds. But, they’re also predatory, and the Great Skua is capable of killing a kittiwake. Stuart Keenan on that Bird ID group tells me he’s seen one in Wester Ross kill and eat a first-year Great Black-backed Gull! In the same Facebook thread, Mike Honeyman told me that the Bonxies used to have a fairly good crack at the warden team on Fetlar. “We were suitably nervous in their vicinity!” he writes.
So, the Great Skua, a lifer for me, even if I didn’t get a decent shot. I wasn’t quick enough to get a focus lock on this bird as it crossed the stern of our moving boat, when the skipper shouted. The subsequent photos were reasonably sharp as it flew away but underexposed against the bright evening sky as, again, I wasn’t quite quick enough to adjust.
*UPDATE: 2024. The scientific work is important even if a few sharks have to be hauled from the water to be tagged.
The Mediterranean Blue Shark, a species critical to the marine ecosystem, is facing the threat of extinction due to overfishing and a lack of proper conservation efforts. A 2024 study explored the genetic differences between specimens in the Mediterranean Sea and the Northeast Atlantic Ocean to understand if they are separate populations. The results showed subtle genetic differences, suggesting that the Mediterranean sharks are largely isolated from Atlantic populations. This separation means they rely on local populations for survival, with limited new sharks coming from the Atlantic.
This has important implications for conservation. Current management often treats Blue Sharks as a single population, but this overlooks the unique risks facing the Mediterranean sharks. Overfishing in this region could push them closer to extinction, especially since they reproduce slowly and are not being replenished from elsewhere. Protecting these sharks requires more targeted conservation strategies and international cooperation.
This research is vital not only for blue sharks but for understanding how fishing and environmental changes affect marine ecosystems as a whole. Safeguarding such apex predators is essential for maintaining the balance of marine life.
I don’t know if Pender’s tags are specifically part of the data for this particular study, but they do feed into the bigger picture of Blue Shark movements in the Atlantic.
The Manx Shearwater is a medium-sized shearwater in the seabird family Procellariidae, photo immediately below. The scientific name of this species is Puffinus puffinus. It’s a tautonym, which means the name repeats to indicate this species is the “type” for the family.
But, you’re perhaps wondering why isn’t it the Atlantic Puffin with its colourful beak the bird that gets to be called the “type” of the family instead of this largely black and white seabird. Well, the answer lies in the fact that Manx shearwaters were known as Manks Puffins in the 17th century. The word puffin has an Anglo-Norman etymology (in Middle English it’s pophyn) and it means “the cured carcasses of nestling shearwaters”, a delicacy at one time. So, back when animals were being given their scientific names and the science of taxonomy and its rules and regulations first being drafted by Carl Linnaeus, the Manx Puffin was the type and was given the appropriate name – Puffinus puffinus.
It is thought that the bird we commonly call the Atlantic Puffin today (Fratercula arctica) got its common name much later, perhaps simply because it has nesting habits similar to the Manx Shearwater.
We recently visited the Isles of Scilly (IOS), spent a few days island hopping from St Mary’s to Tresco, St Agnes and Gugh, St Martin’s, the Western Isles and Bishop Rock Lighthouse and the Eastern Isles. Given that Manx Shearwaters have started breeding here again we were hoping to see quite a few. I think in total we probably saw 20-30 over the course of the week whereas others had seen vast flocks of 1500-2000 the week before. Same applied to the Atlantic Puffins…we were there just a little bit too late in the season.
Meanwhile, we did take an evening pelagic (open-water) trip on a shark-fishing/bird-watching boat. The focus was very much the sharks for the fishermen at least.
The sea anglers caught six (another six got away). The first and largest was 2.3m from tip of its nose to the tip of its tale and was caught by an 83-year old gent with only a little assistance from crew and fellow anglers. All the sharks were scientifically tagged and returned to the water alive and flicking.
Our hope was to see a lot of Manx Shearwaters, like I said. I think we saw, at most three or four on that trip. We did see a lot of Gannets, Herring Gulls, several Fulmars, and a Great Skua.
However, perhaps a highlight was the appearance of a school of short-beaked dolphins (pictured below) accompanied by some bottle-nosed dolphins as we headed back to St Mary’s at sunset. The photo below is of Short Beaks skimming alongside our ferry back to the mainland rather than the low-light snaps I got of the various dolphins on the evening pelagic.
I’ve shared a gallery of my best bird photos from our IOS trip via a public link on Facebook and you can see the top 10% of all of our photos from the trip on Flickr.
There are lots of birds in the Isles of Scilly, although unfortunately, we were at the tail-end of the Puffin season. The islands had had good weather and Easterly winds for a while, which meant less marine bird activity and lower numbers. We saw Manx Shearwaters by the handful as opposed to flocks of 1500-2000 on pelagic trips the week before. Lots of Gannet meant dolphins: Bottlenosed and Common Dolphins on a couple of trips, and lots of seals on another. Oh, and a lone Red Squirrel, just to give the mammals a mention. We also saw six Blue Sharks being caught on our pelagic trip, measured, and scientifically tagged to be returned to the sea a little shaken but otherwise unharmed.
But, on the plus side, it meant no rain, blue skies and warm, sunny days. It was like being in The Caribbean.
We also added a few new species to the bird gallery on this trip: Manx Shearwater, Greenshank, Rock Pipit, Carrion Crow. Various juveniles: Dunnock, Linnet, Lapwing, Barn Swallow, and others. And, of course quite a few we had seen and photographed before, but in new locations: Puffin, Guillemot, Fulmar, Razorbill, Gannet, Great Black-backed Gull, Herring Gull, Lesser Black-backed Gull, Shelduck, Oystercatcher, Swallows, Wren, Reed Warbler, Stone Chat, Meadow Pipit, Peregrine. There were more House Sparrow here than anywhere we have ever visited but only the occasional Chaffinch, Greenfinch, Blue Tit, Great Tit, Song Thrush, Blackbird, Collared Dove, and other fairly common town and country birds.
Interestingly, someone told us on our island-hopping travels that Robins are rarely seen on the IoS, we saw at least four. Black-headed Gulls only rarely made an appearance. Birds we did NOT see at all that we normally see everywhere else in the UK: Buzzard, Kestrel, Jackdaw, Rook, Wood Pigeon, etc.
Our full IoS gallery of Birds, Boats, Mammals, and More is on Flickr and includes photos from Mr & Mrs Sciencebase. There’s also a bird-specific gallery on my Facebook, which should be visible to all visitors.
I bought a sack of black sunflower hearts to restock the garden bird feeders instead of that wasteful mixed seed most of which the small birds discard and the Woodpigeons and our labrador hoover up. It seems the Great Tit (Parus major) and the Blue Tit (Cyanistes caeruleus) are quite partial to these. They need some degree of patience to eat them given that the tasty seed is contained within an edible husk. This deters some less patient birds. I’ve not seen Starling (Sturnus vulgaris) tucking into these seeds on the feeders, for instance. They much prefer to snaffle suet balls and mixed dehusked seed mix.
Eating such seeds comes with the risk of greater exposure to predator threat while the bird cracks the seed open. The Great Tits seem to quickly duck in and out, grabbing a seed and then darting back into the foliage to presumably break it open and eat it. A female Greenfinch (Chloris chloris) didn’t seem perturbed, standing her ground (well, her perch) while she opened it to eat.
A few snaps from a recent, short, but sweet, and hot, camping trip to North Norfolk. Several Turtle Doves, one Cuckoo, lots of Whitethroat, Linnets, Swallows, Swifts, House Martins, several Sedge Warblers, Pied Wagtail, Wren, Common Tern, Dunlin, Knot, the usual gulls (Lesser Black-backed, Black-headed), Mallards, Moorhens, Coots, Avocet, Shelduck, Skylark, Kestrel, Greenfinch, Goldfinch, various geese (Canada, Egyptian, Greylag), Black-tailed Godwit (just one, overhead), and nesting Common Ringed Plover and Oystercatchers.
Common Ringed Plover Sedge Warbler “singing” Juvenile Coot stepping out
Turtle Dover turring up the Wi-Fi Mallard making a run for it
UPDATE: April 2022 A Chiffchaff is currently using the pond. Our full garden ticklist can be found in a more recent article about garden birdwatching here.
UPDATE: Mid-January 2019, we’d been away and the house next door was temporarily empty. We got out of the car, there’s a Goldcrest tweeting away from a bush adjacent to the front garden fence. A first for our garden.
It’s like SpringWatch in our garden sometimes…full birding list for garden can be found here.
Non-avian vertebrates: Common frog, squirrel (grey and black), hedgehog, “pipistrelle” bat, cat, dog.
Sedge Warbler “singing”
Juvenile Coot stepping out
Mallard making a run for it
