Tag Archives: Herring Gull

Spring in February at the Wetland Centre

Accessible Nature … silence, birds, and sunshine in the clamorous city

Well I don’t seem to have made it to the Wetland Centre for ages, but this gloriously sunny day was irresistible. It was an astonishingly quiet cycle ride along the river and through the backstreets, away from the grinding traffic.

Common Gull (greeny-yellow legs), a lot bigger than the Black-Headed Gull (ok, the gull with a chocolate-brown hood on the front of its head, breeding plumage only)

The centre was even quieter, as far as engine noise was concerned; from the hides over the Main Lake, birdsong, or rather the sharp calls of ducks and gulls, was all I could hear. The paths and play areas were heaving with families on Half-Term, young fathers looking unexpectedly burdened with excited and active toddlers.

Bathing Bliss – Black-Headed Gulls getting the grease, dirt, and perhaps parasites out of their plumage

The birds, marvellously undisturbed, got on with their normal behaviour: I watched dominant/submissive social interactions, and of course preening and bathing in the calm shallow water.

Teal with Reedy Reflections in the glorious sunshine

The different gulls showed off a rich variety of breeding and immature plumages, of which each species has many. At this time of year, the species look maximally different, as they signal their fitness to potential partners.

The Great Blackback Gull isn’t called Great for nothing! In the background, Black-Headed and Herring Gulls, a lot smaller

Ducks seen included Pintail, Teal, Mallard, Tufted, Shoveler, Wigeon, Pochard, and Gadwall. A mob of Lapwings, perhaps a hundred strong, got up from the islands from time to time, accompanied by Starlings that seem to be convinced they are waders and waterbirds. Cetti’s Warblers called loudly from all over. Long-Tailed Tits whirred about between the willows. Greenfinches wheezed their extraordinary but hardly tuneful spring song and massed on the bird-feeders; Chaffinches hopped about on the ground beneath them, hoovering up the crumbs. Children jumped up and down in the Splashometer puddles and on the deliberately wobbly rope suspension bridge cunningly set at water-level. Mothers wondered how to dry out their shoes. Grandads licked ice cream cones. I saw 32 species of bird, and enjoyed the Common Orange Lichen on the slate roof of the Wildside hide.

Common Orange Lichen (Xanthoria parietina) and other species on the Wildside hide roof

Sussex Wildlife

Fish and Chips to Take Away, with watchful Herring Gull Customer, Hastings

Fish Stall, netted against Herring Gulls, Hastings. The stallholder reported that they had lost a Dover Sole and a Plaice to gulls in the past few days, so the netting is anything but purely decorative. Customers choose through the netting, and then pay and collect through the quickly closed door!

A fine Plaice … stainless steel sculpture, Hastings. The rainbow coloration is created by the heat of welding the spots on to the skin, forming thin layers of oxide which interfere with light (structural coloration).

Rowan in leaf, flower and fruit, Wakehurst Place

Golden-Ringed Dragonfly, Wakehurst Place

Wheatear, below Pett cliffs, which are inhabited by Fulmars; the gulls were accompanied by noisy Oystercatchers, and a Little Egret

Tiny hemispherical Jurassic shark tooth, Pett cliffs

Not illustrated are the family of three Spotted Flycatchers and the Redstart surprisingly seen in a Sussex hedge! At this time of year they could easily be migrants from somewhere further north, of course. The Peregrine falcon that had a go at a Rook, however, was probably a local.