Treecreeper, Kingfisher, etc

This morning Zoe and I were up at the Reading University lakes at just after 8am.  There were quite a few other people about but they were mostly out jogging or dog-walking, or both.  While we were feeding the ducks and geese by the island on the big lake we caught sight of a kingfisher flying low to the island.  We didn't recognise it at first because it was silhouetted against a bright water surface but its irridescent blue colour became apparent when it flew in front of the shadow of the wooded island.

A few seconds later we saw a small bird that I recognised as a treecreeper (Certhia familiaris) running up the trunk of one of the trees on the island.  It was greyish-brown on top and lighter underneath.  As it was running up the trunk it moved around to the other side, away from us, rather like squirrels do.  Both Zoe and I have seen a treecreeper before. It must have been five years ago or so, because I remember Zoe being fairly small at the time.  I think I was doing the ironing or else putting away some clothes at the time and looked up to see the treecreeper on one of the chestnut trees just outside our bedroom window.  I called Zoe in from another room and she was just in time to see it.  Over the years, we have also seen a nuthatch and a greater spotted woodpecker through the same window.

Getting back to this morning, we also saw the usuals: Egyptian geese, the snow goose/muscovy duck, a cormorant, a heron, lots of mallards, mandarins and wood ducks, coots, moorhens, etc.  The shovellers were still there, mostly just sitting around resting under overhanging branches near the shore, though a few did go out into the middle of the lake and form a feeding whirlpool while we were there.

Pied Wagtails in the Dark

At 5pm this evening I was coming out of the side of Reading Station (the tradesman's entrance - I find it quicker than trying to fight my through the concourse to get to the main entrance).  It was already dark and, as I was about to cross the road, a flock of 30 - 40 small long-tailed birds flew up into the air and then alighted again on some bushes near the RailAir Bus terminal.  Their general behaviour reminded me of a flock of starlings but they were whitish against the black sky.  I went over to the bushes to get a closer look and saw that they were pied wagtails - a whole flock of them in Reading town centre at night!  I suppose that they were migrating south as a group in order to escape from the recent cold weather.

Update on Tue 2004-12-21 by Tristram Brelstaff

This morning at just before 7am I saw two pied wagtails on the same bush as the flock settled on yesterday evening.  The rest must have moved on during the night.

The 'Strange Duck' is a Snow Goose?

This afternoon I also got some photos of the 'strange duck' that Zoe and I first saw a couple of weeks ago.  I now reckon that this bird is a blue-phase snow goose [However, see update below].  The snow goose (Anser caerulescens) comes in two colour phases: the more common white phase which is mainly white but with black wing-tips, and the blue phase which is mainly black but with a white head.  The illustrations in BWP-CE and photos on the web do not give any indication of the beautiful scale-pattern in black and dark green that was visible on the back of our bird.  In some lights the dark green turned to a dark blue  (presumably this is where the term 'blue phase' comes from).  Here is one of the photos I took today:

Again, this bird was fairly persistent in begging for food: it got out of the water when Zoe rustled an empty carrier bag, which none of the other birds did, and I reckon Zoe could have had it eating out of her hand if only she had had some bread left.  This familiarity with human beings suggests an escaped captive bird rather than a vagrant that has wandered in from North America or Siberia.

Update on Thu 2005-01-13 by Tristram Brelstaff

Liz and Zoe report that someone they talked to today says this bird is actually a muscovy duck (Cairina moschata).  Muscovy ducks are natives of South and Central America but they have been domesticated and are now found all over the world.  Their plumage tends to be very variable.

Shoveler Ducks

This afternoon Zoe pointed out a strange grouping of ducks right in the centre of the largest of the Reading University lakes.  There were about twenty ducks all swimming around in a circle no greater than about 2 metres in diameter.  They seemed to be a mixture of males and females, the females being a drab light brown colour, but the males having black heads, a large white patch covering their breasts and shoulders, a large reddish-brown patch on their sides, and a smaller white patch under a black tail. 

As they were a long way out and did not seem to be interested at all in the bread that we were throwing, so we could not get a close look at them.  However, I am fairly confident that they were shoveler ducks (Anas clypeata).  We were not able to clearly make out their characteristic 'shovel' bills, but when we go back tomorrow morning I will be taking my binoculars with me. 

The densely-packed flock was probably feeding (BWP-CE states "Most likely to congregate densely when feeding" and also notes that they tend to gather in flocks of 20-30).  They feed on small animals and plant debris that they suck up with their 'shovel' bills.  The flock were probably swimming in a circle in order to create a whirlpool to stir up food from the bottom.

Update on Mon 2004-12-20 by Tristram Brelstaff

On Sunday, Zoe and I went back to the lake with our binoculars and this time we could clearly see the shoveler's beaks.  Most of them were formed into two densely packed rotating groups.  Occasionally one or two birds would detach themselves from one group and swim across to the other.  We later noticed a more dispersed group of shovelers basking in the winter sun at the other end of the lake.

Goldcrests, Cormorants, etc

On our Sunday morning walk around the Reading University lakes, Zoe and I saw a goldcrest.  It was in a small leafless tree only 3 metres away and it didn't seem to be bothered at all by our presence.  It fitted about from twig to twig, sometimes hanging upside down.  We watched it for about 30 seconds, and followed it when it flew to another tree nearby.  Its crest was a pale yellow colour which I take to indicate that it was a female, though I suppose it is just possible that males lose the redness in their crests in the winter.  When  we got home again I did consider the possibility that it might have been a firecrest, but discounted this when I read in BWP-CE that the British population of firecrests was only a few hundred, whereas the population of goldcrests is around a million.

We also saw four cormorants on the lake.  Two of them seemed to be paired up - when one flew off the other followed.  One of the other two was distinctly smaller than the other three - maybe it was a juvenile.  We later saw the small one fishing - swimming around with its body very low in the water and then suddenly diving below the surface.

We also saw our strange duck again, the one with the white head and the greenish black body.  Its head was more white with small dark patches, than the pure white that I implied in my earlier account.  Also, its legs were a pale buff colour rather than yellow.  It again was very forward in coming to beg for food.  It was definitely not a mallard.