Some Joys of Changeable Weather

11 Monday Feb 2019

Posted by theresagreen in Birds of London, Local Nature Reserves, Nature of Public Places

Tags

Alexandra Palace & Park, ducks and geese, Hornsey, January, mute swan, overwintering birds, pochard, redwing, St Mary's Church Tower, urban wildlife, winter

January 26th-Hornsey

Near the top of Hornsey High Street there are intriguing glimpses of a stone tower seen from the pavement through a screen of tall trees. This is all that remains of St. Mary’s Church, the Parish church of Hornsey.

The tower is a listed Grade 11 building and is within the Hornsey High Street Conservation Area. I think it may be possible to arrange to see inside the Tower; I’d like to do that, I do love old churches.

A sign set into the boundary wall of the tower’s grounds informs that this is a Garden of Remembrance and is a calm little oasis where people and wildlife can take a few minutes away from the busy High Street. It seems to be valued in the community and its gardens are always well-tended.

A quiet walk around the gardens is always a treat and today I made it a diversion on my way to the supermarket. I walked around, stopping to read the information board about the graves and tombs within the grounds.

I hadn’t noticed before that one of the chest tombs is the final resting place of the Morgan family from Bridgend in South Wales. It might seem odd, but this piqued my interest as Bridgend is where my two daughters were born and close to where we lived as a family for 17 years, and now one of my sons lives just around the corner from where they ended up. It might also be of even more interest and relevance to any Morgans out there whose ancestors once lived in Bridgend!

Enjoying a welcome sunny interlude on an otherwise cold day, I turned the corner of the path that leads up to the tower and almost collided with a huge bumblebee! She was a Buff-tailed queen that had flown off from the pretty creamy white flowers of a shrub. I was surprised to see her quite this early in the year; perhaps the sunshine coaxed her out, but did she know she’d find the shrub in flower or was it just an exploratory expedition? I stopped to have a closer look, and to smell the flowers of the shrub: they were gorgeously fragrant. I don’t know what it is, maybe a Sarcocca species? I’m always keen to find plants that are good for early nectar & pollen-seekers. If anyone knows for sure what is, please let me know!

There was another surprise here; a large Eristalis sp. hoverfly was also out and about looking for food and sat for some time on one of the shrub’s flowers.

Also flowering was a Christmas Rose, or Hellebore and there was a light sprinkling of daisies in the grass.

Christmas rose – Hellebore sp.

Daisy

The supermarket is located at the back of the New River Village development, so I walked back along the same gravel path that I’d taken a couple of days ago, but in the opposite direction. I was happy to see a pair of Mute Swans cruising slowly upriver towards me; another common species, but how can anyone not be charmed by their beauty and grace? I loved this image of a young Black-headed gull shadowing a Swan. Perhaps he thought he’d grow up to look like that one day?

Despite their calm and graceful demeanour, Mute Swans may be extremely quarrelsome and will bully smaller species. In the breeding season males stake out a large area of water, and as we witnessed at the end of last year, he defends this territory aggressively against all intruders. They are not entirely without a voice either, despite their name; when angry they hiss and snort and can occasionally manage to trumpet, albeit feebly.

Most of the time though they cruise the waterways peaceably, often in their pairs, stopping frequently to feed on submerged water plants.

January 27th

I was going home today, but before I left there was time for one more walk up to Alexandra Palace, this time with my son and grandson who were both in need of some fresh air. Fresh air was certainly what we got, along with wind and a few showers of hail. This walk was a lot more speedy than my last one.

I didn’t linger on the side of the boating lake, but did spot the all-white duck out swimming with a Mallard drake. Are they a pair I wonder?

I was really pleased to see the Pochard drake out with a female to add to my collection. On my last visit he’d been out on his own.

Pochard female

The texture on the water surface was the effect of wind and hail; the golden highlights were a reflection of one of the moored boats.

This was just hail! Pretty though.

We stopped briefly on the terrace of the Palace where a pair of Magpies were flying about between perches – one settled on the top of a lamppost,

the other on a stone cornice.

Views of the city skyline were slightly better today, but still looming up from mist.

View to Canary Wharf

View of the City Skyscrapers

As we walked back down the hill to reach the pavement alongside Alexandra Palace Way, I spotted a flock of birds foraging on the grass. Beautiful Redwings.

Redwing – Turdus ileucus

The redwing is most often encountered as a winter bird and is the UK’s smallest true thrush. The creamy strip above the eye and orange-red flank patches make it distinctive. In open countryside redwings favour hedges and orchards as well as open, grassy fields. They will come to parks and gardens, particularly in periods of bad weather when snow covers the fields. There were twenty or more birds here and they looked perfectly at ease; not at all concerned by people passing very close to them, or by me taking photographs for that matter.

An unexpected treat and a lovely way to end my visit, despite the wintry weather.

The Redwing

18 Wednesday Jan 2017

Posted by theresagreen in bird behaviour, birds of Wales, Bryn Euryn Nature Reserve, Nature, Nature of Wales, North Wales

≈ 14 Comments

Tags

Coch Dan-aden, grey squirrel, migrant birds, overwintering birds, redwing, Turdus ileacus

For a few magical days earlier this month I enjoyed the privilege of close sightings of Redwings as they travelled around our local woodland foraging for food. Special sightings indeed, and better still I didn’t even need to leave my flat: all but one of the following photographs were taken from my kitchen window.

December 31st 2016

09:10 Thrilled to see Redwings this morning – several flew through the cover of the trees and shrubbery behind the building, with one pausing briefly in view of the kitchen window. There was a flurry of bird activity around that time; they were preceded by a mixed group of small birds, including Long-tailed, Great & Blue tits and seemed to have a variety of blackbirds travelling with them, so may have been a thrush feeding party following a tit feeding. The light was poor and I only managed to get one not-so-good photograph, but at least it is a record of the sighting.

English name: Redwing Scientific name: Turdus ileacus Welsh: Coch Dan-aden Status in the UK: RED Redwings are red-listed in the UK as although the majority are autumn-winter residents, we have a very small breeding population, restricted in range to the northern third of Scotland.

Other local names: Swinepipe, Wind Thrush Scientific name from: Latin: turdus=a thrush and Latin: iliacus=of the flanks (from ile=flank)

Redwings are Autumn-Winter residents of the UK and the smallest and daintiest of our thrushes. Smaller than the Song thrush, they are often shy, but a close view reveals a prominent whitish supercilium (eye stripe), warm rust red patches on the flanks and under the wings and cool grey-brown upperparts. Males and females are alike.

January 2nd

This was the day of my encounter with the flock during my walk in the woods, already described in the previous post. There were blackbirds with them then too and I went on to see the mixed small-bird feeding party just minutes later.

The Redwing’s diet is mainly composed of invertebrates, supplemented with berries in autumn and winter. Wintering Redwings may be seen together with Fieldfares foraging in open fields, but they also feed with other thrushes in grassy paddocks or in woodland. Visits to gardens may be brief and are usually prompted by harsh weather.

January 5th

A frost last night left the ground hard and sparkling white this morning, and it remained cold for much of the day despite the bright sunshine. The hard ground may have driven the Redwings to seek easier food sources. This was brilliant for me as from early morning a small flock of them arrived intermittently throughout the day to pick at ripening ivy berries. So once again from my window I had a succession of fairly close-up views of them, although most of the time they were at least partially hidden behind tree twigs or within ivy foliage.

The majority of Redwings arrive into the UK during September and October as birds cross the North Sea from Scandinavia and Russia. Those arriving into Wales and other western areas are most probably Icelandic birds. Redwings are night-time migrants, and if you are lucky and listen out on dark clear autumn and early winter nights, particularly in the east of the country, you may hear the thin ‘tseep‘ of a flock overhead. As winter arrives Redwings will have largely finished their journeys, settling in the warmer and relatively frost-free areas away from the east coast. They stay with us till March, although hard weather may force them to migrate further, with Scandinavian/Russian birds (the iliacus race) continuing westwards to Ireland or southwards into southern Europe.

Taking a few minutes to rest in the warm sunshine:

“Any attempt to estimate the size of the wintering population of Redwings in Britain and Ireland meets with the same problem as for the Fieldfare: the numbers vary from year to year, and also in the course of a single winter, and major shifts of population may take place in response to weather and feeding conditions. “

( David Snow 1987 – The Atlas of Wintering Birds in Britain and Ireland, edited by Peter Lack)

170105-berc-05-redwing-after-ivy-berries

170105-berc-06-redwing-after-ivy-berries

170105-berc-07-redwing-after-ivy-berries

Another interesting observation I made today was of a Grey squirrel that seemed to be ‘guarding’ the ivy berries. I watched it chase away another squirrel several times, but also noticed it was chasing the Redwings away too, charging at them by running along branches towards them at speed, tail all fluffed out!

January 6th

Milder temperatures may have allowed the Redwings to move on in their constant search for food and today I saw just one bird from my window. It wasn’t in the usual hurry and lingered for a few moments, not moving far and presenting itself to me from various angles so I got some lovely views of different aspects of its plumage and general ‘giz’. They really are beautiful birds.

I saved the best for last.

Wintergreens and Birds in the Woods

06 Friday Jan 2017

Posted by theresagreen in bird behaviour, birds of Wales, Bryn Euryn Nature Reserve, woodland birds

≈ 11 Comments

Tags

bird migration, Blue tit, coal tit, ferns that stay green in winter, goldcrest, Great Tit, long-tailed tit, redwing, the importance of ivy, treecreeper, wintergreens

January 2nd – Bryn Euryn

Clear blue skies and frosted grass sparkling in brilliant sunshine were too much to resist, this had to be the perfect day for my first long walk of the New Year. Less than five minutes along my path into the woods I knew this was set to be a slow walk when I stopped to photograph berries on a holly tree. I was surprised to find so many remaining uneaten and noted ripe ones fallen and peppering the ground beneath. If not for that I may well have missed the flock of beautiful redwings that burst from the trees on the steep lower slope of the Bryn, exploding from their cover and rapidly scattering like shot from a gun, targeting branches of trees close by. There were a number of them, but impossible to count as once landed they are really difficult to spot. I was thrilled to see them and to be able to watch them and delighted that I got any photographs at all, so of two, this was the best.

Redwing – Turdus iliacus

I knew there were redwings around as I’d been fortunate enough to see some from my kitchen window on the morning of New Year’s Eve and one a couple of days before that, but I had no idea whether they were just passing through or were here to stay. I’m not certain, but I think they were searching through ivy for ripe berries. Now I am hopeful they will stay for a while, at least while they are finding food.

Ivy berries are in varying stages of ripeness

Polypody fern

The majority of deciduous trees are bare now, but there is much that is green. Here we have our native holly, copious amounts of ivy, yew, a few Scots pines that are a native but that were most probably introduced, and rather a lot of laurel, once much beloved by Victorian gardeners.

At ground level there are ferns, the polypody in the photograph above, and also hart’s tongue and male ferns.

Hart’s tongue & a small male fern

And there’s lots of moss.

Then my reward for wandering slowly and numb fingers on my gloveless right hand, left free to focus and press the shutter button on the camera; suddenly I was surrounded by the joyous energy and excited sounds of a number of small birds. A feeding party, a collective of a variety of species of small woodland birds united in the eternal search for food.

It’s impossible to say who arrived first, I didn’t sense that there were leaders and followers, more that the flock was operating as a single entity arriving at a pre-determined spot with potential for all members. Of course there were blue tits, also great tits and a couple of coal tits.

Blue tit

An encounter with a feeding party of birds is a magical, uplifting and energising experience. The birds themselves exude excitement and energy, seeming to delight in the thrill of being part of a gang.

Coal tit

The enchanting long-tailed tits were there too.

Long-tailed tit

Once arrived they quickly settled to foraging amongst the trees and shrubbery, splitting back into their families or species groups. I would have been happy with the company of just the exuberant tits, but have to admit my attention was stolen from them when I noticed the treecreepers. Often included as members of a feeding party, there were two on a tree in front of me and then another two, closer to the side. What a treat to have that many of these gorgeous little birds so close and not only in range of the camera but with the added bonus of bright sunlight too.

Treecreeper

I lost track of time watching the birds, but they gradually moved away and passing people walking a dog and chatting broke the spell and I too turned to continue my walk. But there was one more little treat to come – two tiny goldcrests, that may or may not have been with the feeding party, were working their way through a small holly bush nearby. I watched them for a good while, but they eluded capture by my camera, they are much too quick especially when trying to contend with foreground vegetation. The shot below was the best one I got!

Goldcrest

Before heading on to the trail around the Bryn I had a look at the view over the boundary fence. The higher peaks of the Carneddau mountains have snow with clouds above them that look to be holding more. The warming sunshine had them shrouded in a light veil of mist, with more rising from the Conwy river in the valley below.

Getting to know my new neighbours

07 Saturday Feb 2015

Posted by theresagreen in Bryn Euryn Nature Reserve, Nature, Nature of Wales, nature photography, Rhos-on-Sea, woodland birds

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

blackbird, Blackcap, Blue tit, Bullfinch, coal tit, dunnock, Great Tit, grey squirrel, redwing, Robin, wood pigeon

The beginning of this year has been a busy one and I’ve been distracted and often frustrated by the myriad of mostly mundane issues involved in moving home, but it’s all done and dusted now and at last I can get back to more enjoyable activities. I haven’t moved far and I know my new location is going to be the perfect base from which to carry on discovering more about the rich and varied habitats and wildlife of this part of North Wales.

A good few of my posts have related to the nature reserve of Bryn Euryn, the big bulky hill around whose base much of Rhos on Sea is built and my new home, on its eastern slope couldn’t have put me into closer contact with it. The beginning of a public footpath leading up onto the Bryn’s Woodland Trail is within a few metres of the entrance to the apartment block I live in now.

Early morning view to the east across Colwyn Bay

The views from the living room of my top-floor flat, although partially screened by trees, are ones I have photographed many times, albeit from higher up on the hilltop and then from the kitchen window the steeply rising wooded hillside is just a few metres away. Thanks to residents on the ground floor who put food out for the birds, I have a wonderful eye-level view of an array of woodland birds making the most of the food on offer.

There are almost always wood pigeons somewhere close by, most often perched up high surveying the busy little birds flitting about below. Pigeons nest pretty much all year round and on several occasions in the past weeks I have seen birds carrying sticks, probably for running repairs.

Wood Pigeons keep an eye on an approaching Grey Squirrel

Sometimes they descend from their lofty perches allowing a closer look at their lovely softly-shaded plumage.

A handsome Wood Pigeon

Other larger birds I see on a regular basis are a pair of crows and a pair of magpies, who also strut around on the lawn and there have been a few glimpses of jays.

Where there is food on offer then there are bound to be opportunistic grey squirrels, there are several that scamper about amongst the trees here on the woodland edge. They generally get a bad press, but I love watching them, they are entertaining and clever and you have to admire their incredible agility. They are rather photogenic too.

One of the squirrels nibbling on a twig

A photogenic Grey squirrel

There are always blackbirds of course and recently both males and females have become more territorial. Males are singing and there are many chases amongst those that arrive for food; first arrivals see off those that may follow. I have no idea which, if any, are regular visitors, particularly since I watched the piece on TV about the Holt Blackbird Project, where the blackbirds are fitted with different combinations of coloured leg tags and residents monitor their comings and goings. To quote from the published results: One of the really incredible outcomes of the project is an understanding of the sheer number of birds that use the garden during the breeding season. The greatest number of individuals recorded on one day was 74, and even then there were some unringed birds still present. So, next time you see ‘your’ pair of Blackbirds in the garden, remember that they may not be exactly who you think they are! Who knew? I always knew there were a good few of them around, but as you only really see them singly or in twos or threes when they’re establishing territory, those numbers seem incredible. I have given a link to the article about the project, which makes fascinating reading.

Male blackbird

A dark and well-marked female blackbird

A lighter female blending perfectly in amongst the sunlit twiggy tree branches

There are thrushes about too, or at least one anyway. Back in early January I heard one singing early one morning from a tree in the front grounds, when it was barely light. I thought it was most likely to be a mistle thrush as they are early nesters, but I am not at all sure and was even less sure when I heard more singing at 7.25am in the morning a week later, this time at the back of the building and looked out of the bedroom window to see him singing away illuminated by a nearby security light.

150109TG-Thrush singing (1) -Bryn Euryn (DC)

9th January – A thrush singing from high in a tree

Robins have been singing for a few weeks now too and as with the blackbirds, there is no peace for those that venture in for food; as soon as one perches another is almost sure to swoop in and there are frequent chases through the vegetation.

A robin enjoying a rare moment of peace in the sun

So far, the finches I have seen here have been goldfinches and chaffinches, but on Tuesday a lovely female bullfinch was here for a while. I was expecting to see a male with her, but alas no sign of one, so perhaps it was a young one that hasn’t got a mate yet.

3/2/15-Bullfinch female

There are no house sparrows and I miss their noisy chirping and cheeping, and no starlings either, but I still have contact with both when I go back down the hill to visit my daughter. There are dunnocks though. Male dunnocks are singing now too.

Of the frequent visitors, Blue tits are the most numerous and there can be several here at any one time. They seem to have an orderly queuing system, each one taking food then taking leave or sometimes carrying it back to a nearby branch to eat it. There are more feeders in the garden next door and there is much commuting back and forth.

Blue tit

There are only ever two Great tits present at any one time, a male and a female. They have a more business-like approach to their feeding and although they make regular visits, they do not hang around once they have what they came for.

Female great tit

There are one, or perhaps two delightful little Coal tits too. Their approach in to the feeding site is more discreet than that of the Blue tits, made via the lower twiggy branches of the shrubby trees. They are also quick to leave once they have taken food.

Coal tit

A small flock of glorious Long-tailed tits flutter in intermittently as they make their rounds, but I haven’t managed to photograph them here yet.

One morning I looked out of the window and saw a bird that I didn’t immediately recognise, although it did look a bit thrush-like. I ran to get my camera and got just one image, through the glass, that I hoped would help with my identification. I had a feeling it was a redwing, but I hadn’t seen one for some years and couldn’t quite make the image I had fit with those in my books. I thought then maybe it was a sparrowhawk- right place, similar stance on the branch…? Anyway, I have been put right by fellow blogger Tony, who despite the not-so-brilliant quality of the image, immediately spotted it was indeed a redwing! I’m delighted – it’s another species to add to my list and to look out for again and I’m sure a sparrowhawk will be along any time soon.

150104TGBRD-Kitchen view 12- Sparrowhawk

Redwing-Turdus iliacus

Tuesday this week (the day I saw the bullfinch) was a glorious sunny day and a few of the birds took advantage of the warmth to take brief respite from their hectic feeding schedules to sit in the sunshine. I looked across to the laurel hedge and spotted a bird nestled into a small space framed by leaves. My eye was drawn by its pale-coloured breast, but it wasn’t until I looked through the camera lens that it occurred to me it was a blackcap, a female.

4/2/15-First glimpse of the female blackcap

She ventured out onto a twig in the sunshine

150204TGDC-Blackcap female first sighting this year (4)

She sat in the sunshine for a short while before flying off

She stayed around for a good few minutes, then moved across to an evergreen shrub in the neighbouring garden for a while before flying off. I expected to see a male somewhere near her, but as with the bullfinch there was no sign of one. More about blackcaps here.

Thursday morning was again gloriously sunny and a much warmer day too and a few minutes spent watching the usual comings and goings brought forth two more additions to my list. Firstly a glimpse of a greater spotted woodpecker high up in a tree, half-hiding behind a branch, then even more excitingly a tiny goldcrest. I was fairly sure I’d seen one here flitting about in the vegetation on a couple of occasions previously, and I stopped to watch one on my walk on Tuesday, but this was a really good, though brief sighting that confirmed my previous sightings weren’t just wishful thinking. We have a good number of conifer trees close by, which they like to use as nest sites, so I’m hoping to see more.