What Winter Brings...

I feel it's safe to say the summer's definitely over.  My suspicions that this may be so were confirmed with a visit to the patch for sunrise earlier in the week... it was freezing.  Fool that I am, I didn't wear gloves and my hands were in agony using the camera - the light was worth it though.
 Having returned from Antwerp, Valentino the Med Gull is back for his fifteenth winter and still going strong!   He's been in the park for about three weeks now, and although to begin with, apparently he'd been sneaking off to Wanstead - oh the treachery - it appears he's settled back in his usual haunt of the park.  A regular Med Gull always brightens up a winter morning.  Yesterday, with the thought in mind to get some better shots of Valentino, I had a bit more than I bargained for with him showing down to four foot... surely there is no better gull?  It was a shame the light was quite as bad as it was, I'll put this down as a work in progress.

As if a showy med Gull wasn't good enough, the kingfisher's been showing regularly as well.  It seems as though she may have found a favoured spot, and is showing on practically every visit. A nice improvement on the rare and sporadic sightings earlier in the year.  Of course though, this favoured spot is in the darkest shadiest area on the canal.  It's understandable why she chose it though, it's the only area which is fenced off, and looking in isn't exactly easy.  Ah, Kingfishers are a tricky species! This shot is from my best (not closest) view so far... a lot of room for improvement.
 Easy to guess what I'll be up to for the next few months...

Ross's Gull

It's back to gulls for now, and I imagine that this theme will continue into the next post too.  I did see rather a lot.
 On the 20th, I went (ahem, twitched) a Ross's Gull.  This little Arctic gull had ended up at Kinsale in Co. Cork.  As with the Eider, it only took a few minutes to find the gull (ah the joys of Irish birding) as it flew by the Trident Hotel.  We ended up being there for around four hours, and the bird showed well on and off during that time.  On a couple of occasions, it flew by within six foot of where I was standing.  A fantastic little bird. Unfortunately it appeared to be slightly oiled on the breast.  It didn't seem to be hindered by this though.
 In typical rare bird fashion it proved pretty difficult to photograph, so again... Record shots.

 In the times when the Ross's was out of sight, I spent time photographing some of the other gulls in the area.  There were plenty of Kittiwakes around, and we even managed to find a Kumlien's Gull.  Although to be quite honest I only confirmed the ID once I'd got back.

Is that enough gulls yet? I suppose not, well more will be coming soon.... Many more.....

Kenmare Birding....

After waiting 5 hours in the airport on Wednesday, our flight to Ireland was cancelled. Snow, ice and winds of up to 110mph in Cork made sure of that.  This storm left over 100,000 people in Ireland without electricity. Thankfully we did manage to rebook for the following day. The flight was still slightly delayed, but only by about 40 minutes.  So we made it to Ireland, at last.

 Today the weather wasn't too bad, so we decided on a spot of local birding.  The day started at Kenmare Pier. There were a few year-ticks here; Lesser Redpolls on the beach and the water held Great-northern Divers and Shag.

 We then headed across the road to Kenmare Bay, and soon found a Little Gull.  After a few minutes viewing it flew off in the direction of the pier.  I imagine it had probably been blown in by the strong winds, as they aren't very common in this area. Although it was my second sighting of one here.
There wasn't all that much else in the bay. So we headed back to the pier to see if the Little Gull could be relocated. In rather typical Irish fashion the rain now set in.  There was no sign of the Little Gull. However, as we were waiting for the rain shower to pass, a distant white winged gull flew by.  A 1st winter Glaucous Gull! Being my first Glauc.... I was pretty happy.  I presume another wind blown bird.

 Not  a bad start to my trip, 7 year-ticks and a lifer on my first days birding.  Hopefully this trend will continue.....

Valentino....

The story behind Ilford's most famous gull.  It starts on an October day way back in the year 2000, when I was still but a baby.  Local birder Peter Hopkins was having what I'm sure was a nice walk around the lakes when he spotted a Mediterranean Gull.  The Gull we now know as Valentino.  Already in adult plumage, so at least two years old.  This fantastic little bird was then ringed in 2002.  And would you like to guess where?  Belgium, in the city of Antwerp.  He was ringed as part of the European Mediterranean Gull Ringing Scheme, and when they were told of his presence in the UK  they said -and here I quote: 'Really Astonished!'  I don't blame them.  A 200 mile journey at least.  I suppose migration of most birds is longer, but still to my eyes it's quite a trek.

After a bit of simple  (extremely simple) calculations, I estimated that this gull is at least fifteen years of age.  Older than me.  But the most interesting thing, in my opinion, is that according to the BTO's study the oldest recorded Med Gull so far lived until it was fifteen years three months and seven days old.  This means Valentino is in for a chance of snatching that title.  The funny thing is -well not exactly amusing - as far as gulls go, and they do go a long way, fifteen years is quite a short period.  Even Black-headed Gulls have reached twenty nine years.  Although this could be due to there being many more of this more common species, so more chance of a re-catch.  It would be incredible though if Valentino did set the age record.
 Considering his age he seems in good shape still, though I have yet to work out out if he is more or less dominant than the Black-headed Gulls?  Well he'll be here for a fair while longer, so I should have time to find out.

I'm not sure how it is in Belgium, but over here as I'm sure you know, some people seem to take feeding birds to the extreme - I have myself witnessed people come with shopping bags filled with bread, Usually very off bread- and the antics of birds like the Black-headed Gulls who are very partial to it seems to have rubbed off onto Valentino.  He's now got a taste for it himself.

Although, he usually is the last bird to take up from the lake to come to the bread he still shoulders his way in when he's decided he's hungry.  Although trying to keep track of him is no walk in the park. OK yes it does involve walking in a park but you know what I mean, don't you?
  And finally to top off this fantastic bird's story, Valentino seems to me to be a bird of habit. You see, the lake on which he resides is a bit bigger in scale to a football pitch.  However you would usually be wasting your time to scan the whole lake for him.  You see, save one occasion, every time I've seen Valentino on the lake he is on the east side.  And the last time he was within a twenty foot radius of where he was the time before. Even once taking bread he would return to the same spot.  Must be an age thing, I really hope I'm not like that when I'm fifteen.

 So now you know (hopefully) much more about Valentino, almost all there is to know. I would like to thank Peter Hopkins for the information he's provided.  It's been invaluable. I sincerely hope that you did not find this all that boring a read.  I rather enjoyed writing it.  It gave me a fantastic insight into Valentino's life.
 Now I just need some good images.

The Joys of Patch Birding.

As I have often mentioned on this blog my patch is not the kind of place birders would usually choose to go.  There have been many days when I have seen nothing more attention grabbing than a Little Grebe.  But on the days it comes together it is all worth it.  I have had few of those days, but I will let on now that today was one of them.

 The joys of a local patch is that you know what to expect in certain areas, you know generally what you can hope to see.  If you were - like me, a wildlife photographer and visited Valentines Park for the first time, you might not choose to come back.  That however is your loss.  Not mine, because I do choose to come back.  And if you know the right areas some great opportunities can be had.  Valentines, being an urban park, sees a lot of people.  The wildlife also sees a lot of people.  Thus it becomes somewhat accustomed to their presence.  Not enough to tolerate people walking directly at it (save in the case of Squirrels) or too close but still, more tolerable than their cousins in the true wilds.

 I've been particularly lucky on my patch with Green Woodpeckers.  They still are shy and flighty, but not as bad as elsewhere I must admit.  I've managed a couple of pleasing images, nothing too spectacular, but I'm working on it.

Anyway, back to today.  We thought we would pop around to see if we could spot Valentino.  The all famous Med Gull back for his/her 14th Winter.  First look at the lake and we didn't spot it.  So we moved on and at the fish pond we had our first stroke of luck - the first two Shoveler's of the season!  This came as a surprise as I don't usually see them until winter usually.  The lighting was quite nice on the lake so I fired off a few shots.

We then moved on to see if we could find the Green Woodpeckers (that shot was from a couple of weeks back) but they were not to be seen, so it was that we moved to the canal.  Where I had just a little bit of luck with a Grey Wagger....

 To top it all off we finished the day with fantastic views of Valentino, the best I've yet had!  A day total of 32 was reached, which is pretty good for the patch.  Also some fairly pleasing images.  So a very good day at the patch.

 It proves that you really don't need to travel far to find amazing wildlife.  Valentines Park is just a couple of hundred meters from my house!