Biology – Page 58 – David Bradley

A year of bird photography

It’s a year since I first stepped out into the world of birds with a big Sigma lens (150-600m). First day out snapped a kingfisher that had been hanging around the Cottenham Lode. I’ve snapped 130 different bird species since, including herons, raptors, cuckoos, summer migrants, warblers, waders, seabirds, and even the occasional owl.

Scrollable gallery of choice snaps here: https://imagingstorm.co.uk/british-birds although you may notice I got ever so slightly better with tweaking my settings as the months went by. Earliest shots are at the bottom of the long table.

Pictured above from top left to bottom right: Robin (Erithacus rubecula), Long-tailed TitÂ (Aegithalos caudatus), Reed Warbler (Acrocephalus scirpaceus), Peregrine Falcon (Falco peregrinus), Barn Owl (Tyto alba).

Peregrine in the neighbourhood

Just when you imagine you’ve exhausted the supply of local birds, something new turns up in the neighbourhood. Spotted this juvenile female Peregrine (Falco peregrinus) perched in a tree at the edge of Rampton Spinney on the Cottenham Lode side. It startled and headed across fields North Eastwards…sat on a mound of earth about half a mile away and out of range of cameras and even Mrs Sciencebase’s snazzy new bins.

Anyway, I got a few snaps of the Peregrine in the tree. Brings my photographed total since buying this big zoom this time last year to 130 different species. Even if you’re not a birder, you can’t fail to be impressed by this species, surely? It can stoop on its prey at speeds well in excess of 350 kilometres per hour! The record is 389 km/h.

Just cribbing a bit about this bird of prey from Wiki:

The peregrine's breeding range includes land regions from the Arctic Tundra to the Tropics. It can be found nearly everywhere on Earth, except extreme polar regions, very high mountains, and most tropical rainforests; the only major ice-free landmass from which it is entirely absent is New Zealand. Nevertheless, it is the world's most widespread raptor.

Stiffkey Marshes

There are two schools of thought and how to pronounce the name of the North Norfolk village Stiffkey, some people pronounce it almost phonetically, “stiff-kee”, but others (older locals often) pronounce it “stoo-kee”. The origins of the name lie in a form of clay known as Norfolk “stew” and this is village was the site of a quay for transporting that product, so Stew Quay…anyway, wildlife in and around?

On a recent visit (20th January 2018), several hares (Lepus europaeus), active and boxing, which seems far too early as it’s only January and they don’t usually go “mad” for courtship until March.

Lots of Brent Geese (Branta bernicla) on the Stiffkey Marshes

Lots of Curlew (Numenius arquata), Redshank, Little Egret, occasional Skylark, possibly Meadow Pipit, Blue and Long-tailed Tit, Linnet, Wigeon, Chaffinch, Mallard, Teal, Black-tailed Godwit (on floodwater further inland).

Reed Bunting (Emberiza schoeniclus) in winter plumage

Blackbird (Turdus merulea)

You will have to trust me on this one as my camera lens barely stretches this far, but these are grey seals (Halichoerus grypus) and their pups on Blakeney Point. Incidentally, their scientific name means “hook-nosed sea pig”.

Flying visit to RSPB Titchwell

Waded into Alan Partridge CountryÂ this week, North Norfolk (specifically RSPB Titchwell and on to Stiffkey Marshes). Here are a few of the bird snaps from Titchwell showing the various waders and waterfowl sighted there in their winter plumage.

Black-tailed Godwit (Limosa limosa)

Bar-tailed Godwit (Limosa lapponica)

Lapwing also known as a green plover, peewit etc (Vanellus vanellus)
Grey Plover (Pluvialis squatarola)
Dunlin (Calidris alpina)
Ringed Plover (Charadrius hiaticula)
Common Redshank (Tringa totanus)

Oystercatcher (Haematopus ostralegus)

Little Grebe (Tachybaptus ruficollis)

Knot (Calidris canutus)

Teal (Anas crecca)

Golden Eye (Bucephala clangula)

Black-headed Gull (Chroicocephalus ridibundus)

ShovelerÂ (Anas clypeata) [Background: Avocet (Recurvirostra avosetta)]

Merlin, femaleÂ (Falco columbarius)

There were others, including my first sighting of a Merlin (above) perched on a post on the dunes and Common Scoter, out at sea and discernible only as black specks with my camera. There were also long-tailed duck out there too, apparently. Turnstone and various other wading seabirds visible but not clear on the shoreline. There was a big flock of linnet on the marshes and chaffinch, robin, dunnock, greenfinch, blue, great, longtailed, and coal tit, blackbird, wood pigeon, moorhen, wren on and around the feeders near the visitor centre. No waxwings were seen anywhere and no bramblings either.

Argumentative goldfinches

At one time, garden feeders would be swamped by Greenfinches (as well as the usual House Sparrows and Starlings). You might see a few Blue Tits and Great Tits too, and Nuthatches, and more besides. Next weekend (27-29th January 2018) it’s the RSPB Big Garden Birdwatch, a national survey of our feathered friends. Recent stats suggest that Goldfinches have become the more common sight on feeders in recent years and I’d agree with that in our garden, at least. It will be interesting to see how they add up this year.

Meanwhile, I’ve photographed and now videoed a flock of Goldfinch (Carduelis carduelis) that spend their mornings on our nijer seed feeder, arguing about who gets to sit on one of the four perches on the feeder. There are probably 8 or 9 Goldfinches in the garden at any one time, so obviously not enough perches. Their aggression and arguments are quite amusing, take a look at this short video clip I recorded on the morning of 17th Jan 2018.

There’s a Youtube version of Argumentative Goldfinches here if you prefer.

Coal tit photos – there’s an app for that

I’ve been hearing and catching occasional glimpses of a coal tit (Periparus ater) in our garden for several months. I have managed to get some awful snatched photos of it, but usually with its face turned away from the camera or flitting into the shrubage. Anyway, on a whim, I decided to put my camera on a tripod in the middle of the garden and point it out that mixed seed feed dangling from our beech tree, resplendent in its bronze winter plumage foliage.

I’d enabled Wi-Fi on the camera and went back indoors to a comfortable chair and fired up the EOS app on my phone, luckily the camera’s Wi-Fi signal was strong enough to cope with the distance between chilly tripod and comfortable armchair. No sooner had I sat down than the coal tit appeared by pure chance. So tapping away on the app, I grabbed a few before it darted back into the aforemention shrubage and did not re-emerge.

The coal tit eats insects, seeds, and nuts and will cache food to eat later. They’re well known as flocking with blue tits and great tits in winter woodland and gardens. We do have blue tits and great tits that visit our feeders but I’ve not seen any evidence of any of them flocking as such.

The New Bedford River

The New Bedford River is a near-straight drainage channel between Earith and Denver Sluices. It is also known as the Hundred Foot Drain because of the distance between the tops of the two embankments on either side of the river.

New Year’s Day 2018, one bank was cut short and you could only walk so far along it before you’re wading into the water. It happens every year, nothing unusual. The man-made cut-off, bypass, channel for the River Great Ouse in the Fens of Cambridgeshire, allows water from the land to drain into the sea (at The Wash). The drain itself is tidal and you can see the ebb and flow at Welney, which is more than 30 km from the coast.

There was lots of bird activity along the Drain: pied wagtail, grey wagtail, redwing, grey heron, starling, robin, coal tit, great tit, blue tit, long-tailed tit, chaffinch, meadow pipit, goldfinch, buzzard, wren, kestrel, mute swan, black-headed gull…

Green sandpiper confirmed

In mid-October I spotted a bird I didn’t recognise scooting along Cottenham Lode. It looked mostly black/very dark-brown but with a white rump and a square tail. It was a quick flyer shooting along the fen drain close to the water’s surface. I’d say it was just a little smaller than a swift and with a similarly sickle-shaped wing profile; but the swifts were long gone by this time of the year. I thought maybe it was a seabird, but that felt unusual we’re just outside Cambridge miles from the coast. Perhaps it was a migrant blown off course by the strong winds we called “ex-Ophelia” at the time. I didn’t get a photo.

Members of the RSPB forum had various suggestions, but it was my trusty ornithological mentor on Facebook, Brian Stone, who recognised it from the description and told me it was most likely a green sandpiper. I saw the same bird again a few nights ago, it was almost dark, but it was definitely the same species. I got a very noisy snap as it passed over a patch of light on the Lode.

I sent the picture to Brian who confirmed it, even from this awful photo, as a green sandpiper (Tringa ochropus). He pointed out that it’s a common visitor to the fen drains in winter, and on passage). The green sandpiper is a wader (a shorebird). It breeds across subarctic Europe and Asia and is a migratory bird, wintering in southern Europe, the Indian Subcontinent, Southeast Asia, and tropical Africa. It eats small invertebrates plucked from the shoreline mud. Almost uniquely for a wader it nests in trees although will often adopt a used thrush’s nest as its home.

According to the RSPB its call is a loud “tllu-eet weet-weet!”

What’s happening to our birds?

The RSPB/BTO/WWT state of the UK’s birds report is out now. Here’s the exec summary cribbed from the RSPB’s press release.

Climate change is helping some species, hindering others.
Bird abundance and distribution are changing, more reaching further north.
Some migratory birds are arriving earlier. Swallows get her two weeks sooner than they did in the 1960s.
Species that prefer warmer climes but don’t migrate are beginning to settle on our shores, e.g. little bittern and night heron. Garganey, quail, and little egret already on the increase.
Rare breeding birds, such as dotterel, whimbrel, common scoter, and Slavonian grebe, will be at greater risk of extinction in the UK as conditions change.
Sandeel numbers are down which means kittiwake population are declining. Will affect Arctic skua, Arctic tern, and puffin too.
National surveys show capercaillie and hen harriers down.

*Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, British Trust for Ornithology, Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust

Birdlife at Stiffkey Marshes

We made an impromptu trip to Stiffkey on the North Norfolk coast, stopped overnight at the Red Lion Inn, it was almost dark by the time we got there but there were lots of loose flocks (skeins) of geese coming home to roost on the marshes. The initial attractor had been rumours of waxwings around the car park near our old stamping ground High Sands Campsite.

An earlyish breakfast the next morning had us legging it to that area in search of Bombycilla garrulus, none to be seen but a big flock of linnets was chasing around the neighbouring hedgerows, we could hear lots of curlews (in flight directly below this paragraph) and could see pale-bellied Brent goose, red shank (pictured above), little egret, kestrel, stonechat, snipe, bar-tailed godwit, cormorant, lapwing, fieldfare, oystercatcher, pochard, shelduck, black-headed gull, redwing, dunlin, sandpiper, yellowhammer, skylark, greenfinch, chaffinch, meadow pipit, turnstone, wigeon, and a real mixed bag of other birds spending November on around the marshes.

There are countless other species appearing on the North Norfolk coast according to the proper birders: black brant goose, Iceland gull, glaucous gull*, Lapland bunting, cattle egret*, great white egret*, Slavonian grebe, spotted redshanks*, water pipit, snow bunting*, Tundra bean goose*, great Northern diver*, long-tailed duck*, little stint*, velvet scoter*, hawfinch*, Caspian gull, goshawk, Richard’s pipit, shorelark, rough-legged buzzard, yellow-browed warbler, Sabine’s gull, grey phalarope, little auk, black-throated diver, red-necked grebe, Leach’s petrel, Pomarine skua, black guillemot, ring ouzel, twite, purple sandpiper*, scaup, white-fronted goose*, dotterel.

Now, that list is what sets us apart from the proper birders, not only would I not recognise nor spot the majority of those, I’ve not even heard of a half a dozen of them before.

*We have since seen the asterisked species in various places.