Mammal skulls from barn owl pellets

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One of the really great things about my work is that I get to spend a little time teaching some incredibly interesting topics with a group of keen zoology and ecology students. I'm running a new ornithology module, which will (by the time I've finished writing it!) cover subjects including bird diversity, flight, migration, behaviour and conservation.  In the practical classes this week we spent some time learning about the bird digestive system, and why raptors (among others) produce pellets.

I'm fortunate to be supervising two enthusiastic doctoral students, who managed to locate a huge supply of barn owl pellets from west Berkshire (thanks!). Dissecting these allows us to study what owls are actually preying upon. In total the class dissected 117 pellets from three locations, and keyed out the remains found in them. I have summarised the data in a pie chart, but this ignores the large volume of fruit (cherry?) stones  and beetle elytra found at one location, where the proportion of mammal remains on first glance appears lower. Evidently (and as expected) field voles (225 individuals) make up the majority of prey items, with bank voles, common shrew and wood mouse the other commonly found species (around 25 of each). Other prey (small birds, pygmy shrew, harvest mouse) were found in very few pellets.

The other opportunity I took was to take some photographs of the skulls, and I had in mind something more than just a straight-forward macro approach. With the exception of the common shrew (Sorex araneus; click any image for larger) where the red-tipped teeth suit colour, I converted all to monochrome in a separate layer, and tried to go for a more fine-art look, using high structure and contrast. I then changed the opacity of the monochrome layer to around 50% (depending on what worked for me) to allow some of the base colour to come through and flattened the resulting image. I hope that it provides a different viewpoint of something inherently interesting...

Field vole Microtus agrestis




Harvest mouse Micromys minutus


Brown rat Rattus norvegicus


Wood mouse Apodemus sylvaticus


Common shrew Sorex araneus

Fieldfares in the snow

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I spent half an hour at lunch time in the hide, trying to get some more fieldfare (Turdus pilaris; click any image for larger) shots in the snow. Very happy with the images - at full resolution every feather is pin sharp. I also took a few of a dunnock (Prunella modularis; about to take off) and a lone chaffinch (Fringella coelebs) winnowing the detritus under the feeders. The fieldfare was defending the garden from any other thrushes that dared enter.

Redwings

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We have a couple of Pyracantha bushes growing up the side of the house, and these are covered in berries. Usually the bushes provide a roosting site for local house sparrows, but with the exception of the odd blackbird, few species eat the berries. This isn't because they're inedible, but rather because of disturbance by passing pedestrians and cars. This hasn't put off the visiting redwings (Turdus iliacus; click for larger) this winter, who can't be so choosy in these Arctic conditions. They have already stripped a third of the berries, and are working their way towards the berries surrounding the living room window. The light was absolutely terrible, but before starting work I grabbed a couple of record shots - I still can't believe how many winter thrushes have visited the garden!





AFTERNOON UPDATE
Just a single shot of a fieldfare (Turdus pilaris; click for larger) feeding on apples in the garden.

Bird photography in the snow

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Robin Erithacus rubecula


It's been a while since I've done some serious bird photography, rather than just taking shots it as a by-product of my birding. The weather today persuaded me to put up a hide in the garden, and I placed some perches near the feeders. The big advantage of this set-up is that things come close. The downside? It's freezing! (And anything large ends up as a head-shot.)

While there was a decent number of tits, I was surprised at the lack of finches - I saw one chaffinch and nothing else, in spite of liberal amounts of seed available - I suspect that there has been a big movement south for many of our usual residents.

It was also interesting to compare these results from the straight 500mm with those I get with the Sigma 150-500mm zoom. While the zoom is convenient for wandering about (unsurprisingly given that the 500 costs about five times as much) the sharpness just doesn't compare.

Anyway - here are the ones I think are worth keeping - click any for larger.

Blue tit Cyanistes caeruleus


Great tit Parus major


Coal tit Periparus ater


Dunnock Prunella modularis


Woodpigeon Columba palumbus


Jay Garrulus glandarius


Great spotted woodpecker Dendrocopos major




Blackbird Turdus merula

Garden fieldfare (and others...)

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Working hard, but as usual distracted by what's outside the window. The snow's over a foot deep in the garden, and even fieldfares (Turdus pilaris; click for larger) are venturing in, something they usually never do. The feeders are attracting in a range of birds, including the usual house sparrows (Passer domesticus) and robin (Erithacus rubecula; click either for larger). I took a few shots through the (washed in preparation) study window, before returning (resentfully!) to work. Looks lovely out there, but I bet that the local Dartford warblers that survived last February's snow are in for a tough time...

Sheet's Heath in the snow

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The forecast proved accurate, with approaching a foot of snow in by the end of the day. In spite of yesterday's assumptions of a day in, I took an off-school daughter on a lunch-time wander through Sheet's Heath as the snow continued to fall. There was little moving (although a lesser black-back flying over made #58 on my local patch list), with most birds seen near houses, rather than on the heath itself. I used the wide-angle for a few landscape shots - there was no chance of any decent bird images. As the sky was dark grey the snow on the trees didn't stand out, so I went for patterns, where a contrasty mono conversion gives a stark image, emphasising the cold atmosphere (click any for larger). I really like this effect, but I realise that it's not to everyone's taste!









And just to show that there was some colour around - #1 daughter all wrapped up...

Riverside Park, Surrey

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This has been a cold winter, and the car's dash read -4C this morning. I headed out for a half day's local birding, as the forecast weather is likely to keep me at my desk for the next few days. Today's trip was to Riverside Park, a nature reserve outside Guildford. I'd only been here once before, seeing a green sandpiper (and the Early Birder).

The river Wey runs through the park - the navigation was opened in 1652, the first canalised river in England. The Wey connects Guildford with the Thames, and trade along the river was the foundation of the city's wealth. Today it's used by pleasure boats, and has great conservation value. The adjacent meadows flood (click image below for larger), and traditionally were a wintering haunt of water pipit.

Today there were decent numbers of redwings and fieldfare foraging in the frozen meadows, and black-headed and common gulls further out, but no sign of water pipit. The Wey had a few little and great crested grebes (Podiceps cristatus; click for larger), several Egyptian geese (Alopochen aegyptiacus; click for larger), over 50 Canada geese (Branta canadenis; click for larger) and a range of other waterfowl, including several teal.



The river is bounded by pollarded willows on one bank (click for larger), with alders on the other. The trees were full of foraging flocks of tits, siskins, lesser redpolls and other finches.

I passed over to Guildford sewage farm on the off-chance (very off-chance) of a black redstart. None of course, but there was a huge number of pied wagtails (Motacilla alba; click for larger) feeding on the settlement tanks. I then wandered along the river to overlook the now frozen wet meadows, where I found a distant little owl scanning the area from a dead tree. The owl, ice rime on all the vegetation, and the calls of snipe flying over made this place surprisingly atmospheric, in spite of the roar of the adjacent A3.

I then passed back to the main lake, which was almost completely frozen over. The usual suspects were on the lake, including this family of mute swans (Cygnus olor; click for larger), but no pochard or wigeon, or of the reported jack snipe. I imagine that if the lake is unfrozen then there would be substantially larger numbers of wildfowl.

This is only the second time I've been to Riverside, but considering how close it is to home I ought to be going more often - lots of decent habitat and the potential for some decent finds.

Wide-angle wildfowl at Richmond Park

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One of the perils of mixing a family outing with photography is that a) even the most well-behaved five-year-old has limited patience and b) for some reason wandering around gravel pits and freezing heathland isn't considered attractive on a winter's day. So, if you want to get a few shots on a family day, you have to be quick, and you have to choose the right place. Today the location of compromise was Richmond Park - it has food, interesting things to look at, and Richmond itself is just around the corner.

I only had 20 minutes or so to take some shots, and as the light was pretty terrible. I decided to make the best of a poor situation and we spent a little time feeding the birds at Pen Ponds. A few shots were taken with the plan to convert them to black and white to emphasise the cold conditions. Only one was taken with a telephoto (black-headed gull Larus ridibundus; click for larger) - I liked the symmetry of the image, and also how fluffed up the gull's plumage was in the cold. The rest were taken with an ultra-wide angle to try to get something a little different. The Canada goose (Branta canadensis; click for larger) shot works well, I think. The position of the gulls in flight overhead helps balance the composition, and I've burned in the detail in the pebbles to enhance the mood.


The Egyptian geese (Alopochen aegyptiacus; click for larger) allowed close approach, and here I've tried to contrast their rich colours with the dull surroundings, while using the perspective provided by the lens to provide an unusual viewpoint. A slow shutter speed allowed the flying gulls to blur, while maintaining the geese in focus. None of these latter shots quite worked out how I wanted them, but they've provided good pointers as to how to improve them next time.

Red-throated diver at Frensham Little Pond

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New Year's Day birding part two - target species
After being virtuous and birding on my doorstep, and decided to make a start with the second part of my year's aims, to see some of the species I'd missed out on last year, mainly due to a lack of time and distance involved. This was an easy one though - a red-throated diver had been reported yesterday at Frensham Little Pond - just about the least likely place in Surrey (short of a village pond) where you'd expect one to turn up. Usually at this time of year they're at sea, or in a sheltered bay somewhere, rather than in the middle of west Surrey. The diver was reported as being oiled, which may explain its presence so far inland.

Frensham Little Pond is actually quite big, only little in comparison to Frensham Great Pond, and at this time of year is well known for wintering bitterns. Today however it looked as if half of Farnham had decided that a walk around the pond was called for - the place was packed with people. Normally this would have me heading in the opposite direction, but a diver would be worth the effort. Initially I wondered whether the noise and dogs had spooked it, but then I caught a sight of it, heading behind some Phragmites. First species to be crossed off my target list for the year. With a couple of other birders, we could see the diver hauled out on a grassy patch, preening, but our view was almost completely obscured. Of course - the diver had found the one place where it wouldn't be disturbed - right by the warden's cottage.

After a little while the warden showed up, and deciding that politeness was over-rated, I asked if we could have a view from his property. Good bloke that he was, he was happy to oblige the group of four that had gathered, and sticking my head around the hedge, I was about 20 feet from the red-throated diver (Gavia stellata; click for larger). I took a few shots, as did the others and then we headed back to our old spot to see if it would return to the water, but no luck. There is some evidence of oiling around the neck (probably from preening), but most was out of view - the only question now is whether this diver has a fighting chance?


UPDATE
I gather that the diver was killed by a fox the night these images were taken - a sad end...

Brookwood Cemetery

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New Year's Day birding part one - local patch.
Starting with part one of my new year's resolution, I walked all of a few hundred yards to Brookwood Cemetery. Brookwood Cemetery is Britain's largest, and Europe's second largest cemetery, founded in mid-Victorian times to deal with the overflow from London's cemeteries, which were filling up with victims of cholera and other now-conquered diseases. It is now a Grade 1 listed site. When I first moved nearby the cemetery was overgrown in large parts, but it is now much tidier, but fortunately from a wildlife point of view, there are still nooks and crannies which provide a range of habitats. Most spectacular of all are the avenues of giant sequoia, and most poignant is the military cemetery, with tended lawns and careful plantings.

I wandered through the cemetery, picking up common passerines, a sparrowhawk overhead, and best of all, a little owl flicked away before I had a chance to get the camera up, but I still managed a decent view. I've always thought that the cemetery would be ideal for them, and it looks like I was right! I only took one decent image (and as an aside, you need a permit to photograph within the cemetery), of a robin (Erithacus rubecula; click for larger) sitting on a gravestone.

Wandering in cemeteries brings a real quiet - no dog walkers and few other people, allowing them to be havens of peace and biodiversity, and also a place for reflection.