A mainly White and Black day

The overnight snow, which managed to form a two foot drift around my car made me shelve plans for a trip out. Instead I spent my time ensuring there was food and water in the garden and watching the coming and goings.

There were plenty of Blue Tits around, and for a while these two even suppressed there aggressive and fed side by side just outside the window.

A couple of Robins were around, occasionally making brief forays to the seed feeders, without ever looking comfortable doing it.

The biggest surprise was a male Blackcap. I haven't seen one at all this winter but this one popped in twice. It sat for a long time above a hole in the snow that gave access to the water in the little stream that circulates from the pond. It seemed reluctant to go any father and one of the Blue Tits watched on impatiently.

The Blue Tit came down for a closer look, but this didn't seem to encourage the Blackcap to take any action.

As if to demonstrate what was needed the Blue Tit, in a quite un-British way, queue jumped and nipped in for a quick drink in front of the visitor.

He wasn't down there for long and soon reappeared, had a quick shake and then flew off, probably back to the food.

That seemed to have done the trick, and the Blackcap. learning from the Blue Tits actions went down for a quick drink.

Two Pied Wagtails have been daintily trotting round the garden, picking up tiny morsels dropped to the ground by birds on the feeders above them.

Still lots of Blackbirds around, although the last lot of apples, or what remained of them are now under six inches of snow.

After there seemed to be predominately males in the blackbird "flock" today there seemed to be an increase in the number of females around. I have no idea if there is any separation in their normal feeding habits, but I think it unlikely.

I boiled up a load of vegetable peelings, spuds, carrot, parsnip etc and put them out on the lawn. I brought quite a lot of gulls down at first, although they didn't seem that enthused when they found out what it was. There were a few Common Gulls and Black-headed Gulls, as well as the customary Herring Gulls.

They may not be the most popular of urban birds, but against the snow background this adult Herring Gull looks quite splendid.

I'm not sure if junior cuts quite such a handsome swagger though. Given that there are other gulls in the area these three species were a bit disappointing.

There's been a Blackbird with a white collar around got a while, but it's the first time I've seem this one. It's got a few blotches on the head and shoulders and some very noticeable white outer primaries. It makes it easy to follow his activities.

Here he is doing a bit of water divining at the pond.

I saw just one cock Sparrow today, but no female.

And only one Collared dove came down to drink today. There's an annoying flock of feral Pigeons that like to spend time in the garden, perhaps the Collared Doves prefer to stay away from their noisy relatives.

There were just a few Starlings around today, one did manage to spend some time clicking and whistling in it's normal entertaining way.

Baby it's cold outside

In every single apple lies, A truly magical surprise

Back in the autumn I collected loads of fallen apples from a large tree in my son, Simon's garden. Luckily I've an old freezer in the garage and I bunged them straight in there.

Now the cold weather has arrived I've been putting a few out each day. I takes quite a while for them to thaw out, but once soft the Blackbirds seem to enjoy them.

For the last couple of mornings the number of Blackbirds has risen to about ten, and proving I spread the apples out they seem to manage without too much squabbling.

I was surprised to see a Redwing join them this morning, they rarely come into the garden, and this one proved quite shy. I only managed to photograph it through the window. A Pied Wagtail was another of the less regular visitors to the garden that paid a visit today.

It was so cold today that I was finding it difficult to keep my birdbath unfrozen. Fortunately the pump on the pond kept going and this meant that there was some flowing water available. Again shots are through the window, and pretty well into the sun, but it was fun to watch. Blue Tits were almost continuously appearing, I have no idea what the total number might have been.

There were just two House Sparrows around, but at least there's some hope while they're around.

I only saw two Great Tits coming to bathe but there were more on the feeders. Greenfinches, Chaffinches and Goldfinches all joined the party.

Starling are the birds that seem to relish a good splash more than any other garden bird and they made the most of the "stream". I had hoped that something more out of the ordinary might arrive, but I had to make do with my apple eating Redwing.

When is an Iceland Gull not an Iceland Gull?

I have long though that Dover Harbour under performed when it came to providing good birds for the mad band of birders who walk the pier and risk either getting blown to pieces or suffering frost bite. In years gone by I have seen Iceland and Glaucous Gulls (one each) and last year a Yellow-legged Gull, but considering the number of gulls in the area this a poor reward. The news that Ray O'Reilly had found a second winter Kumlien's type gull on Sunday was therefore a pleasant surprise. I hadn't' managed to look for it before this morning and that was a failure. After a lunchtime appointment when I picked up a new (second-hand) car I returned to the harbour and was lucky enough to bump into Dave Walker, who informed me it was being watched at that time from the Admiralty Pier. A quick relocation to the right pier and a fingernail biting ten minutes while we waited for it to return from a wander round the area had us watching it attacking a fish, provided by one of the hardy fishermen, in the seas just below us. There has been so much written about large gulls in the last few years, including Kumlien's, it's relationship to Iceland and Thayer's and much more I think it is better for me just to post a few pictures and recommend that anyone interested reads some of the papers and Web posts written about this intriguing taxon. One of the best recent posts was on Martin Garner's "Birding Frontiers" and by a lucky chance Martins is talking at the KOS indoor meeting on Thursday 9th February.

“The perils of duck hunting are great- especially for the duck”

After my self-imposed blog abstinence, when other things took priority I though that I'd pay a brief visit to blog-world today. I had to got to Sandwich on other matters and took the opportunity to spend some time in the beautiful sunshine this afternoon. Last night I gave a talk at Sandwich Bay Bird Observatory about my birding trip Venezuela last year. Fortunately I was able to use some of my son, Pete's excellent photographs that he'd taken while leading the group, which added to the less spectacular selection of my shots, I hope made a reasonable evening. Many of the pictures showed birds that we think of as colourful, which they are, but we really shouldn't forget some of the fantastic birds under our own noses.

I popped along to North Downs Farm and managed to peer over the fence at the small reservoir to get a reasonable, though distant view of a female Goosander sitting on the bank at the end. Too far for a picture though.

I realise that Teals have featured rather frequently of late, but sitting in the Restharrow Scrape Hide, watching their antics is a thoroughly therapeutic. Now that they are getting frisky they are also quite amusing.

It's always good tho scratch if you've got an itch!

I was plweased to see a Pied Wagtail pop in, it was the only passerine I saw in the hour 30 minutes I sat there!

This is the typical pose of a drake Teal trying to show off his finery. He puts his head back an lifts his bill and then puffs out his chest and makes a few rather strange grunts.

At long last I've caught up with some Shovelers on the scrape. I know that they've been around a while, but in the main they've been strangely absent, leaving the area to the larger than usual number of Teal. These two still don't look to be fully moulted to their best outfits, but if the weather remains fine I'm sure it wont be long before we see then beginning to get onto their pairing rituals.

I did see five Mallard flying round the Village yesterday. I assume it was a Duke with five potential suitors on her tail.

Confucius say: A good bird selects its tree.

Although the situation is very different to when the garden was invaded by the a huge charm of Goldfinches, there are enough Greenfinches, Chaffinches and sundry others to be emptying the feeders at an increased rate.

WHen I went out to top them up this morning I was pleasntly surprised to here the rhythmic calls of a pair of Coal Tits. Of course this is not an uncommon bird, but it isn't one that regularly uses the garden.

While I was watching one it raised it's rather paltry crest a few times. The Coal Tit has an enormous range, with over 20 sub-species, stretching from the UK right across Europe and Asia to eastern China and Japan. Some of the races in the east possess much more conspicuous, but still rather untidy crests.

It was quite confiding and stayed around for a while repeating it's "whit-chew" call, the Coal Tit equivalent of the Great Tits "Teacher, Theacher" song.

The absence of Sparrows for the garden has, at least for now ended, as a handsome cock Sparrow spent some time feeding just in front of where I am now. I did have to defend it's perch from some very determined Greenfinches, but seemed more than capable of holding it's own.

In heaven you won't hear the mosquitoes.

I got fed up with sitting in front of a screen, trying to sort out a project I'm working on. I found an excuse that convinced me I needed to go out for a while and had a wander. What I really wanted to find was a hunting Barn or Short-eared Owl. It seems that this bit of Kent has been left out of the Owls wanderings.

I peered over the fence at the farm reservoir at New Does Farm Sandwich and was surprised at how many Tufted Ducks were on there, at least 35, plus two Pochard. I wonder if they are just resting or whether this over large plastic paddling pool actually has enough food in it to make it a worth while feeding site for the ducks.

Have you ever looked through your binoculars and seen what appeared to be a distant flock of birds, only to find, once focused that it is in fact a swarm of insects?

We're in the middle of January and one wouldn't normally associate "flocks" of Mosquitoes with visual hazards at this time of year. Even with the hard frost of last night there still seem to be a large number of insects in the air. I know that many insects are capable of surviving the winter but it is unusual the fins so many mossies around as there are at the moment.