Unfortunately I missed this week's session as my car wouldn't
start when I tried to set off - I spent a very fraught afternoon trying
to work out what was wrong when I discovered I'd left the internal
lights overnight (well about 20 hours). The battery wasn't actually
flat, but there was not enough juice in it to start the engine. After
charging it for an hour or so, I managed to get it started and and so I
took it for a short drive to recharge the battery a little more, but as it had turned 2:30pm, it was sadly far too late to go to the session.
Anyway, this post is based on a brief outline kindly written by
Alan and it will be padded out with a little research by me later in the week.
Alan started ... I gave them a laugh with the Heaton Park Gull photograph which when I had a
closer look showed the gull flying off with a pork pie. When I told my
wife Marion I’d photographed a gull with a pork pie she said ‘what sort is it?’ to which I replied, ‘I’m not exactly sure but it looks a bit like a Melton Mowbray’.
It turned out that the Heaton Park one was a
Common Gull and the
Penny one a Lesser-black backed. Peter had us using the field guides to
spot the difference
We then spent some time studying the different White headed gulls as a follow up to last weeks Black-headed ones.
One of the birds Peter discussed with us was the
Long-tailed Duck, he told us how the East-coast was the best place to see them and named a few likely sites.
We then discussed
Waxwings again
for a bit before moving on to the differences between
Goosanders and
Red-breasted Mergansers, then to the differences between
Grey Plovers and
Golden Plovers.
The next topic was ‘
Ten Winter Waders’ as shown in December’s Bird Watching magazine. Turnstone, Grey Plover, Knot, Curlew, Bar-tailed Godwit, Dunlin, Redshank, Sanderling, Purple Sandpiper and Oystercatcher.
Finally Peter gave us a couple of hand-outs on
Llanddulas,
Pensarn Beach and
Marshside.
Next week's session is a field trip to
Mere Sands Wood where we hope to see a Water Rail which is regularly seen at the grit feeders.
