Walking The Walk Again

Yesterday I finally managed to go for a walk along my usual patch of the canal again. My resolution to go every week has lapsed recently but it was great to get out and see how things have been changing over autumn.


As you can see from the photos the leaves have almost all fallen now and with the morning sun behind me on the walk out there was a definite feel of winter in the air. Despite this, even in mid November there are still flowers in amongst the hedges. A welsh poppy and some purple and pink flowers that have been there since I moved here in early September. It's nice to be reminded that even in the season we associate with decay and winding down new shoots and petals are pushing through.

The canal path was busy yesterday, with lots of dog walkers and joggers as well as a man fishing patiently. I wish I'd stopped to ask him what he normally catches. I've only ever seen one fish in the canal, a pike last spring, but there must be lots of fish in there. Unlike the fish the birds were easy to spot. Still in their morning flurry of activity there was lots of birdsong and I easily spotted most of my normal species. Pigeon (always the first one as they live under the bridge I walk down to the canal by), sparrow, great tit, black headed gull, mallard duck, moor hen, swan, as well as the more unusual blackbird, starling and pied wagtail.


Almost all the berries have gone from the hedges now and the sparrows are hooked on the bird feeder in the garden. They're still only eating from one of the two seed feeders though, it's definitely their favourite.

Curtain Twitching

Going out for walks to see wildlife is great, but we shouldn't forget what's right on our doorsteps or out of our windows.

Yesterday I looked up from typing and saw two birds right at eye level flying past. They were black headed gulls, although already in their winter plumage their heads were confusingly white. While you might associate gulls with the seaside black headed gulls are more commonly found inland and are the most common inland gulls in the UK. You'll often see them flying behind ploughing tractors or anywhere with a good supply of worms, fish or insects. The way they glided past my window was breathtaking, completely still except for moving forwards with the wind.

Later in the day I saw movement in the corner of my eye and looked up again. A flock of about fifty starlings were flying round and round our row of terrace houses. Autumn starling roots are beautiful. What I saw wasn't really a proper roost spectacle, those at the RSPB Otmoor (video here) and Fen Drayton Lakes (video here) reserves are truly stunning. Thousands of birds flying in beautiful patterns just like shoals of fish in the sea. This behaviour helps to protect them from predators, flying in a flock makes it harder for birds of prey to pick out individual birds, but they also roost in large groups for warmth and to exchange information.
While these flocks are huge the starling population has dropped by 70% in recent years. There used to be common roosts over big cities such as Manchester, Liverpool, Newcastle and Edinburgh but now you're much more likely to see them in rural areas. The reasons behind their decline aren't certain but could well be linked to increased use of chemicals on farmland and loss of permanent pastures.

So there are two really exciting birds I can see out of my window as well as my normal lovely house sparrows who are taking a while to find the new seed feeder, it's only two meters from the old one!

What's the most exciting wildlife you can see from your house? What's the most boring?