Drifters

It's that time of year. A youngster goes and makes a mistake, and all the season's efforts have been for nothing.

This morning it was the turn of one of the Lesser Black-backed Gulls.

The nesting season has been fun already, what with Herring Gulls muscling in on the Nestbox, the wreck nearly a half a kilometre offshore in Rainham Creek. But, apart from some parental argy-bargy, the youngsters have got by unscathed, until one decided time to explore.

Did it jump, or was it pushed? No way of telling. It just drifted out to the right of the bow, head down and bill on water, wings half-spread to help it float. A quick count up and sure enough it was off the boat. There had been no fuss from the adults.

As the tide started to ebb, it began to drift out towards Bartlett Creek and an adult started to pay some attention, alighting briefly on the water alongside several times. This just acted as a signal to other LBBs and Herring Gulls. I thought things might happen quickly (a chorus of 'mine' was playing in my head) but the birds just circled and dropped towards the hapless chick, turning away.

Eventually the now-motionless speck drifted out to mid-creek, picking up speed and disappearing from view beyond Motney Saltings.

I made a bit of a joke to a couple of the Riverside staff who had stopped by; whether my black humour went down well, who knows. But Lessers have an typical lifespan of 15 years, breed from the age of four and try to raise a brood of three each year. Now if every youngster survived, we'd be up to our armpits. They've eveolved for natural wastage; circle of life and all that.

Lessers do have a problem in the UK- they are amber listed, but at the same time on the global scale are 'least concern'. They have a small but growing toe-hold in the microcosm of Kent.

'Scoping the islands out beyond the Nestbox, the smaller gulls continued about their business. Though hardly a quantifying measurement, early fledged bird to date are up a tad up in comparison to 2015, though still only extremely small numbers. And more and more adults end their breeding efforts each day. Low pressure over the next few days (especially 3rd-8th) might well mean higher tides and few more drifters heading downriver.

Missed netting (Ringing recovery LE90261)

Ringed in Rainham just a little south of the estuary in October 2014, a Blackbird, was found by a member of the public just some three kilometres to the east in May this year. A recovery of such a short distance and time, whilst of value as scientific data, would not normally merit a blog entry here, but for the finding circumstances:

- released (alive) from nets to protect crops (cherries)

Good on the landowner in this instance. For all of the time I have been birding, this netting has niggled me. Not as much when used properly, but when left in situ long after it has stopped serving a purpose, it niggles. This set of pictures were taken back in the winter, showing old netting locally (and still in place the last time I walked by). 

I first saw netting in this particular orchard way back in the mid-1980s, when it was already more hole(y) than righteous. The two other birders I was with that day really didn't like such netting at all, stating it to be a death trap. Over all the years I can only recall ever finding (and freeing) a Song Thrush and a Goldfinch, plus nearly helping a Green Woodpecker that was only pretending to be caught- essentially the mesh is of a size that deters rather than entangles.

In some ways I have tried to justify a lack of vigilante trespass and selective snipping by thoughts such as 'only causing as many problems as nearby un-netted windows' or 'I've found more casualties on the local road', but it still really niggles every time I see it.

Perhaps it is the aesthetics? Another continual reminder that something many members of the public would just ignore as 'countryside' is anything but- another poor attempt to tame the wild, another signal that there's no place safe for nature.

Still, cherry orchards have become rare locally, and netted trees even rarer. The garden of England looks more like the concrete patio of England every day. What crops there are need more and more poly-tunnels and the suchlike.

Plus ca change, plus cest la meme chose.

The local windmill has been gone from the area for a century now, perhaps time to stop tilting at such things. Or perhaps on dusk I ought to take a stroll out that way and check if it is all still up there?

.

An unscheduled schedule one break

Well the last few weeks have got away from me, what with all the breeding survey work I like to do locally for several landowners, so the blog was always going to be a challenge timewise during June.

But the real pain was two badly infected fingers-index and middle on my right hand, making for a perfect excuse to type a bit less.

Excellent drainage work by the staff of Sittingbourne Memorial Hospital Minor Injuries Unit (yay for the NHS) and several courses of penicillin later, I really have no more excuses for not hitting the keyboard.

Normal service is being resumed.