Thursday 26 November 2009

Thursday 26th.November 2009

Today's planned workparty up on the Common , was cancelled last night because of illness and shortage of personnel , so I took the opportunity to visit Leybourne Lakes at New Hythe , on a beautiful , if chilly , sunny morning . On the way down , I planned my 'want list' , Bittern , Firecrest , male Smew , Goldeneye and Redpoll . Five hours later , I made my way back home with the 'want list' still intact . I mustn't complain though , as during the visit , I recorded 41 species , which I was well happy with . As it happened , three quarters of the list were recorded in the first hour or so , followed by long gaps without adding to the list . In order of recording , House Sparrow , Black Headed Gull , Cormorant ,
as soon at went for the camera to take this adult and Juvenile ( on the left with white front ) they started to take off , so from a stand still , the shot became an in flight one . Tufted Duck , Coot , Robin , Woodpigeon , Long Tailed Tit , Wren , Moorhen , Magpie , Mute Swan ,
these two of this year's brood were well on their way to getting their adult plumage , and already seemed to be bigger than the female who was with them , Mallard , Lt. Grebe , Gadwall


( male on the left ) , Common Gull , Goldfinch , Fieldfare ( only 6 recorded ) , Shoveler , Blackbird , Grey Heron , Teal , Blue Tit , Grey Wagtail , Carrion Crow , Great Crested Grebe ,

Chaffinch , Dunnock , Jay , Bullfinch , Shellduck , Pochard ,Redwing ( only a small flock of these too , and very flighty ) , Kestrel , Sparrowhawk , Great Tit , Green Woodpecker , Starling , Greylag Goose , Canada Goose and Chiffchaff , once again , feeding with a mixed Tit flock . When I visited , about this time last year , I found good numbers of Hygrocybe psittacina-Parrot Wax Caps , and this year the show of this fungi was even better . They start off green , like this specimen , but as they age , they become yellow , with a greenish tinge . Also found in the same area were Snowy Wax Caps and just a few Meadow Wax Caps . Another find was this freshly emerged specimen of Shaggy Ink Cap / Lawyer's Wig-Coprinus comatus .
As I said , I didn't get any species on the 'want list' , but I really enjoyed the visit , especially as the sun shone , although I did pass through rain on the way home . Only other sighting of interest , was a very quick glimpse of a Fox , and from it's body language , it was up to no good .
One shot from yesterday , whilst hedgelaying up on the Greensand Ridge . Whilst clearing an area for the brash , left over branches , from the hedge , I noticed some fungi lower down in the sunshine , that turned out to be a troop of 32 specimens of Clitocybe geotropa . These specimens were the biggest in the troop , the middle one being the size of a bread plate . And finally , just for Warren , whilst we were having breakfast this morning , this Jackdaw turned up for his .

3 comments:

Warren Baker said...

Lots of good species seen today Greenie, very envious of the ducks species!

Thanks for the latest breky instalment!

Anonymous said...

Great post, Greenie.
btw, i always come away with nothing added to my wants list.

ShySongbird said...

You may not have ticked anything off your 'want list' (I have an extraordinarily long one of those) but you saw a great mixture of birds there and you had decent weather too, much better than here!

I have never heard the alternative common name for the Shaggy Ink Cap before. I think Lawyer's Wig is very apt.