Urban birding in Hull: Sculcoates week 13 March heat wave

 We've been enjoying a very unseasonal warm spell this week. On Monday afternoon, I visited the Sculcoates patch to try and see some insect activity. I walked on the small park, the drain and the north and south cemeteries. Daffodils, primroses and blackthorn were in bloom. Warm and sunny, I was rewarded with many firsts of the year, including a butterfly survey, something I don't think I've even done in March.

Butterflies are out!

Small Tortoiseshells were out, sometimes three chasing, I also had two pairs courting

Small Tortoiseshell.

Small Tortoiseshells courting.

Courting Small Tortoiseshells.

I don't remember seeing Small Whites in March.

Two Commas were in the north cemetery. This one was quite intact...

...whereas this one is more 3/4 of a comma. Missing a whole wing but still able to fly.

A large patch of primroses. A Bee Fly was hovering over it and a male Anthophora plumipes.

Bee fly feeding on primroses.

A blackthorn in bloom in the southern cemetery.

On the way home I spot this Andrena fulva, the first of the year, on the road.

Bee Fly.

Return to Noddle Hill

 We are now firmly on the road out of lockdown and I feel like a bird that has been too long in a cage and is hesitant to fly away when the door opens. I have been doing birding on foot and driving feels very odd, I haven't driven in months! I just drive to Noddle Hill, which is a bit far for walking, still quite local, in fact it is my Local Nature Reserve. I had a lovely visit in December, when it was quite flooded, and I want to check how it has changed in these few months. It is an unseasonably warm day, but there is a cool mist, and a jacket doesn't seem too much early in the morning. I hear the Greylag Geese as soon as I open the car door. They are very noisy in the run up to breeding, males chasing rivals, often unprompted and returning to their partners for the 'triumph ceremony', which mostly looks like males showing off. A Cormorant is fishing in the lake.

Cormorant stretch.

Male Bullfinch.

The lake is quite full, but the paths are not muddy. As it is usual early in the morning, I only come across a couple of fishermen and a few dog walkers. A pair of Bullfinches feed on cherry buds. Chiffchaffs sing: three, four? it is hard to tell, but their song is today's soundtrack near the wooded areas around the lake. 

On the scrub, the song is replaced by the chattering song of Linnets and the occasional Reed Bunting. Small groups sit atop hawthorns, chasing and singing.

Linnet

One of the wide ditches of the reserve.

I walk along the Foredyke stream and spot a bird on the path: a Grey Partridge! I move a bit closer and two of them flush and fly over to the wet grassland near the pumping station. That is a nice year tick! A Skylark sings from above the fields and there are two Lapwing on the stubbles. One of them takes flight and pirouettes, calling, displaying, chasing a passing crow.

Grey Partridge.

Lapwing.

Blackcap singing.

A few moments earlier, an odd bird whizzes past in a straight line. As I focus my binoculars I see it is a Kingfisher, another year first!

The flooded wood area looking lovely in the sunshine.

As I return to the lake, I walk on a new path through the woodland and a Woodcock flushes. A great end to a lovely day.

Hull urban birds. 14. Song Thrush

 
The Song Thrush is a small, shy thrush. Its upper parts are a rich brown colour, with its white chest speckled with tear-shaped spots. It often keeps close to cover, and flies to shelter when disturbed, with a distinctive call, 'zit'. Song Thrushes can often pass unnoticed until males start singing, often very early in the year, then they appear to be everywhere. It is a loud and pleasant song, of whistled phrases repeated several times at regular intervals, drawn from a wide repertoire. The presence of Song Thrushes can also be detected by their anvils, a hard surface where they crack snails in dry weather, when worms become unavailable. It feeds on worms and other ground invertebrates, and in the autumn and winter it supplements its diet with berries.  

Status in Hull

Although not particularly numerous, it is a widespread, resident bird in the city, and breeds in parks, cemeteries and residential urban and suburban gardens. It is also found on the edges of playing fields and the river and drains where there is plenty of cover. The Song Thrush was included in the Hull Biodiversity Action Plan. It doesn't appear to be declining in Hull.

Conservation

The Song Thrush is a UK Amber Listed species due to population declines. Between 1970 and 1998 the population fell by 56%, possibly due to changing farming practices and pesticide use. There has been some recovery since then, but the population density remains much lower than in the past. 

Management

Avoiding pesticide use in gardens and parks (including slug pellets). Sensitive management of hedgerows, avoiding trimming during the breeding season and berry season, and a layer of scrubby understorey in parks and gardens should encourage Song Thrushes in the city.

31/03/2019, Pearson Park.

A Song Thrush anvil, a brick, with the broken shells of Cepaea snails.

Noddle Hill LNR. 7/05/2017

A Song Thrush in habitat. Bridlington Avenue, 27/02/2021.

Pearson Park. 17/02/2017

Singing atop a roof at Pearson Park. 1/03/2017.

Two Song Thrush fledglings at Pearson Park, 13/05/2015.

Song Thrush 'frozen' at the sight of a Sparrowhawk, by Bransholme 9/03/2021.

Urban birding at Hull: City Centre and Victoria Dock

The first year anniversary of the first lockdown. I take a walk to the city centre, the Marina and the Deep and Victoria Dock. I want to see the Shag that has been seen in the last few days at Princes Quay. 

I walk around Queens Gardens. A Mistle Thrush (above) sings from one of the poplars. The female is probably sitting on eggs nearby. There are three pairs of Greylag around one of the ponds. A female is sitting on a nest. The male keeping watch close by.

Greylag on nest.

Then I move onto Princes Quay. A few mallard, a few gulls (only 3 Black-headed gulls about) and a fly over Grey Heron.

Grey Heron.

I find the shag (top shot) in the far end of the quay. Shags are quite uncommon birds in the Hull area. There was one at East Park for a week or so in December 2018 and they are occasional in the Humber, where records tend to be in the winter months. In February 2018 I saw one in the Humber, it had a blue ring, but I couldn't read it. The shag in Princes Quay also has a ring, its finder, fellow naturalist @scarpermac on Twitter reported it. This bird was confirmed to have been ringed as a chick, one of a brood of three, last June in the Isle of May, an island at the mouth of the Firth of Forth in Scotland. 

Shag showing the white darvic ring with large code STH.

I make use of the new Murdoch connection bridge, allowing panoramic views of the Marina and the Humber.

I walk to the Half-tide basin, the footpath is now opened around the basin itself. A pair of Coots in the basin and two Pied Wagtails are the highlights. With the binoculars, I spot two crows crossing the Humber, not something I see every day.

A lone Common Gull in the half-tide basin. There were plenty around today, by the Humber, but not as many in the parks and playing fields.

View from the half-tide basin corner.

Two crows appear to cross the Humber together.

I return via Victoria Park. A Chiffchaff sings.

A large boat manoeuvring to enter Albert Dock.

I spot a Curlew on the river Hull by Scale Lane bridge. It's plumage makes great camouflage on the mud banks.

I notice some footprints on the muddy banks of the river by Scale Lane bridge. They look like a roe deer track

And these look like Grey Squirrel prints. I have some records in Queens Gardens and Victoria Dock Village.

As I walk through Trinity Market people are sitting on picnic benches having their lunch. There are some Lesser Black-backed gulls landing to catch some tidbits. Earlier, they had been patiently waiting for lunch time atop some chimney pots.

In Victoria Square, a 5 year old Herring Gull, still with a black smudge on its lower bill, adopts a chick's begging posture and calls like when a female begs to its male, trying to coach some food from people lunching.

Herring Gull begging.

One of the walk's highlights was to briefly glimpse a Peregrine over the city. After taking this shot, it disappeared high in the sky.

And these Buzzards were displaying over Princes Avenue.