Docklands Flora

Some of the flowers seen around the bullnose in the last couple of months.


A white Buddleia, complete with a Red Admiral showing why it's often called the butterfly bush.






The bees seem to enjoy ragwort, which can be poisonous to livestock in some circumstances, though not to humans.










Hedge Bindweed, or convolvulus,










I love the colour of this knapweed.











Pretty as it is, I don't think this one's a Riversway native.

Thursday 3 September 2009

Albert Edward dock

14:30 Cloud, heavy showers 12 o C. Wind W 20mph. Humidity 87%. Pressure 995mB. Visibility poor. High tide today 23:46, 8.97m.

What a wild and windy day, very choppy water in the dock. The cormorants are having problems getting airborne.








I haven't seen the terns for a few days so decided to take a look at the hest. Quite a bit of the nesting material is gone and no sign of any terns. They usually fledge at around 4 weeks, so am hoping they have simply moved on.



Mute swan x 2
Cormorant x 10
Coot x 5
Mallard x 20
Black-headed gull x 50
Herring gull x 5
Lesser black-backed gull x 5

Wednesday 2 September 2009

Preston Marina

14:30 Heavy showers, 16 o C. Wind SSW 10mph. Humidity 73%. Pressure 1004mB. Visibility poor. High tide today 23:13, 8.65m.

It's too wet for bird watching today, other than saying there are gulls out there. The light is too poor to see colours of feathers, legs, etc.

The gulls most often seen around here are black-headed gulls. Black-headed gulls actually have dark chocolate-brown heads which are white up the back, and in winter they have white heads. The juvenile gulls are brown and stripey, rather than grey and white. They're smaller than common or herring gulls, but you don't always have anything to compare sizes with. They have a red bill and legs.

If you see a very small gull with an all-black head it could be little gull, which is an occasional visitor. I've seen one at Leighton Moss but never around here.

If you see a gull the same size as a black-headed gull with an all-black head it could be a Mediterranean gull, which is a very rare visitor. I've never seen one of these here.

The RSPB has a handy bird identifier to help you put a name to any birds you see.

Tuesday 1 September 2009

Preston Marina

14:30 Heavy showers, 16 o C. Wind SSW 12mph. Humidity 85%. Pressure 1000mB. Visibility good. High tide today 22:35, 8.23m.

A short walk today, rain stopped play. No people & very few birds about around the marina, guess they've been more sensible than me & kept out of the rain. The coots appeared to be sheltering under the public jetty.

Coot x 2
Cormorant x 3
Black-headed gull x 6
Common gull x 2