#herring gulll

[dansnaturepictures]

7/3/20-Fort Cumberland and Hill Head 

Including update on Ruby and additions to my lists of favourite birds, butterflies and mammals We were lucky to get out today as our youngest dog Ruby, who’s days may be numbered due to a tumour as part of her ongoing battle with lymphoma, appears to have been bitten by an Adder yesterday. She has a recovery from this ahead of her and I wish her all the best. She is in and out of the vets and on steroids, total rest has been ordered. I took the second picture in this photoset of her doing this before leaving today, and first picture in this photoset of a Goldfinch in the garden. 

I am writing this as it’s a part of the story of my day, but I must say I am in no way complaining about this wonderful and iconic snake species or their presence in the landscape as they are one of our and in particular the New Forest’s where the bite occurred best species. They are an integral part of wildlife so I am not anti-Adder at all or anything like that. But I am starting to wonder whether by life long snake phobia foreshadowed this and my Mum’s Adder bite seven year’s ago this summer. On both occasions things we said and did foreshadowed the event too so you never know about these things. 

We did go out with only our oldest dog and Ruby’s Mum Missy to Fort Cumberland in Portsmouth the lovely coastal area we last went in January I took the third and seventh pictures in this photoset of this place. Missy certainly enjoyed her walk as shown by the fourth picture in this photoset with her rolling over on the beach and with one dog (both of ours are ageing now) it sort of made me appreciate more as a lover of dogs having a dog and being able to enjoy time with them. 

Wildlife wise on a quite grey patch of the day the highlights were seeing two special gull species I had got at year ticks two weeks ago today at nearby Hayling Island. I heard the exciting call of a Mediterranean Gull and then some lovely ones flew over by the fort. Some were at the car park as we left too. I then saw a Common Gull on the water and saw one possibly the same later on flying over two cracking views of this bird I really admire. Great to see both species again. I took the fifth and sixth picture in this photoset of these birds respectively. 

This gives me a good opportunity for the first time to tell you about some additions I decided to make to my A and B lists of favourite animals last weekend. Every March and if needed September after last year I am gonna have some thinks about species I might want to add to my lists of favourite birds, butterflies, dragon/damselflies and mammals and score candidates against criteria on a spreadsheet to help inform my decisions. Mediterranean Gull was added to my B list of favourite birds so the first I’ve seen since making the additions, alongside Corn Bunting, Snow Bunting, Black Redstart, Greenshank and Water Rail. They joined Manx Shearwater, Shag, Little Tern, Spoonbill, Spotted Redshank, Barn Owl and Yellowhammer on this list. But two of the existing members of this list, Great White Egret and Short-eared Owl gained promotion and are now among my favourite birds on a list of 30. 

There were no demotions anywhere as I don’t think I really look to do that between the lists unless I come to feel I need to with increasing numbers on the lists. No butterflies were added to my list of favourites, but four species - Grizzled Skipper, Silver-spotted Skipper, White-letter Hairstreak and Brown Argus join my butterfly B list to mean there’s 11 on that so as many as my list of favourite butterflies. I don’t have B lists for dragon/damselflies or mammals and no additions were made to the former. Finally, one addition was made to my list of (now nine) favourite mammals in the form of the Sika Deer. 

Mediterranean Gull was added to my B list because it’s a bird I admire so much and red and black together my two favourite colours make my favourite rich colour scheme that’s why I like a lot of birds. Their call is so enchanting and quirky and they just make my heart beat a bit. They’re solidly my second favourite gull now behind one of my favourite birds the Kittiwake and ahead of Common Gull which just missed out on consideration for the B list in truth and may be in contention in 6 or 12 months. To be honest I hadn’t thought of Med Gull for the B list until seeing them two weeks ago and how good that was but this species sailed on to the list in the scoring somewhat so I am glad I had the idea. 

Wildlife Sightings Summary for Fort Cumberland: One of my favourite birds the Brent Goose, Mediterranean Gull, Black-headed Gull, Common Gull, Herring Gull, Cormorant, Feral Pigeon, Woodpigeon, Carrion Crow, Magpie and I heard Great Tit. 

On the way home we stopped off at Hill Head as the sun started to come out a bit. I took the eighth and ninth pictures in this photoset of views here. It was great to see lots and lots of gulls on the shore here as the eighth picture shows such as Herring Gull, Lesser Black Backed Gull and Black-headed Gull, I also saw here; Turnstone, Mallard, Mute Swan and Carrion Crow. 

When home I did a unique take on the sun setting from the window scene I photograph so much with a portrait one the tenth picture in this photoset. 

[toadsrbutch]

a man full of photogenic-ness with a side of no fear of people