Red-backed Shrike

 At last we found a Red-backed Shrike at the Mere. Neither I nor Jon had managed to see previous visitors so it was good to get a record at last.

It was in the hedgerow that separates first and second fields and stayed most of the day, though it was rather flighty.

First sighting at 08:44

Last photo taken before I left to continue my walk

As I came back through the fields MJ was there waiting for the shrike to re-appear, and I managed another sighting before I left again. Hopefully Mike got it too.

Three Stonechat were also flitting along the hedge and flying down to the fence line. I had four there yesterday so they are hanging around.

Red-backed Shrike and Stonechat photo bomb

Stonechatless Shrike

Stonechat

Two slightly distorted guitars; Mandarin!

 I may have misheard Vivian Stanshall, but I'm sure that is what he said when introducing Mike Oldfield's instruments on Tubular Bells(1). So it came as no surprise that Tubular Bells was playing in my head as I photographed this beautiful drake Mandarin Duck this morning off first field on the south side of Hornsea Mere.

I think I gave Jon a heart attack when I saw him shortly after the duck had flown, as I announced I'd seen a drake Harlequin Duck.  Oops - a momentary lapse of reason on my part there 😂

Mandarin

It had just started to rain when I walked into first field so I was hoping that, after overnight rain as well, we would have one or two interesting summer migrants in the fields, bushes and trees. Alas, my hopes were dashed, as apart from 3 Stonechats feeding on the set-aside thistle heads I didn't see anything. The set-aside field is also drawing in finches and the flock of Linnet reached c.45 this morning.

The mass movement of Pink-footed Goose has started in earnest and I had 43 flying east overhead as I walked through second field. The large herd of Barnacle Goose is still with us and I counted 163 this morning.

Barnacle Geese

A single Little Gull was on the jetty at KP yesterday, which may be one of the last records for this year at the Mere. We'll see.

Little Gull on KP

While humming Tubular Bells to myself I was mulling over what else Viv Stanshall had done and I was thinking about this days with the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band. His introduction to the instruments on Tubular Bells reminded me of his The Intro & The Outro* on 1967's Gorilla album. This was probably the reason Mike Oldfield asked Viv to MC the same thing for Tubular Bells.

*With a nebulous link to birds, The Intro & The Outro includes the line "Drop out with Peter Scott on duck call".

 (1) Of course, on Tubular Bells, a mandolin is introduced and not a Mandarin (I think)

A Mere Cold Steel Rail *

 I couldn't stop singing the song to myself the whole morning after watching this little beauty, almost the first bird I saw when I put the bins to my peepers this morning.

juvenile Water Rail at the Mere

Water Rails are resident at the Mere but I've not come across a young one before. They are quite secretive birds, showing themselves infrequently. The most I've seen together was seven, when there was a particularly wet winter a few years ago, but they were all adult birds.

A Snipe was managing to feed along the water's edge but there is precious little edge to see at the moment. Distant photo but it added to the day's list.

Same with Great White Egret too 😂

Great White Egret with a list to port on the water level

Dragonflies are being seen every day but they don't settle as often as I would like. This female Common Darter obliged for a short while.

Common Darter

On my way back from my morning's meander along the south side of this particularly wonderful piece of God's own county, I spotted a Wheatear fluttering in the reed tops. Alerted by its wonderful white rump (aka arse, of which more shortly) I snapped a few snaps.

 The name of this bird is not a reference to the wheat crop that has ears, but is more interesting than that, or it is to me anyway. In days of yore the bird was called white arse by the country folk, but language being what it is, the old English name gradually evolved into Wheatear. Much less descriptive than the original name and misleading too.

* for those unacquainted with the magnificent works of Pink Floyd, this is a reference to the fabulous and famous song Wish You Were Here, the lyrics of which include the lines:

Can you tell a green field
From a cold steel rail?
A smile from a veil?
Do you think you can tell?

And you've just had some kind of mushroom, and your mind is moving low

 The year is getting on and the time is right for searching out those weird and wonderful things that mostly grow at your feet, but sometimes on trees and shrubs. That's right - I'm talking about fungi. 

I think I know the obvious ones such as Ink Cap, Fly Agaric, King Alfred's Cakes and Puffball, and one or two less well known species like Jelly Ear and Scarlet Elf Cup, but there are loads of species and some are so similar I could never separate them for identification purposes. They are so tricksy that they change appearance with age too. This being the case I will never, ever, never, ever, NEVER be tempted to eat one in the wild. 

The closest I get to munching on food picked while I'm walking the beautiful footpaths of the UK is one or two wild blackberries - and then only once I've checked them thoroughly for hidden caterpillars!

These are some photos of fungi taken over the last few days and I am yet to id them. A field guide is on order and it can't arrive soon enough for me.

Coprinopsis sp. I think

This and the two below are the same fungi - no id yet

 

No id yet

The one thing I like about fungi is that they don't move when you approach them with a camera. They don't even move in the wind like most plants do. They are therefore perfect models for photography. All these were taken with my phone camera so you don't even need macro lenses or attachments.

Autumn bird migration is getting on now and we have a few waders still coming through. Common Sandpipers are on first field edge most mornings and yesterday we had a Whimbrel and a Curlew together over KP. This morning a Green Sandpiper was briefly on first field edge, but I didn't manage to see it unfortunately, as my itchy feet carried me away just a few minutes before it arrived. Less vegetation on the water's edge would be good, but this is a sore point with birders locally so I won't say any more here.

I did manage to see the Wheatear that stayed in first field for a few hours today though, flying along the fence line closest to the Mere. 

The Barnacle Geese that arrive each Autumn to overwinter here have arrived. I counted 116 this morning as they fed in the stubble field south of the Mere. There may be more but the field undulates quite a bit and with the geese moving about a count from low down is a bit of a challenge. I started off to walk to a higher piece of ground a field away to get a better view but they took off before I could get there 😂

Hobbies are still here and they are feeding up on dragonflies. There are loads of Migrant Hawkers close to the Mere so there is no shortage of food for them. Swallows and House Martins are also feeding over the water if they fancy something more substantial.

The set aside field is a good place to enjoy butterflies and the planting can still throw up the odd anomaly. I found a Small Tortoiseshell feeding on alfalfa. Never having seen alfalfa before I had to look it up.

Small Tortoiseshell on alfalfa

Also in the set aside field I found a moth feeding, which I think is a Silver Y? Moths are similar to fungi as far as I'm concerned, and are a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside a brown and greyish enigma - with appropriate apologies to Winston Churchill.

Silver Y perhaps?

Which brings me nicely to the title of this post, which is taken from the lyrics of a famous, some may say infamous, song by Jefferson Airplane. White Rabbit is a fantastic song but is too short, lasting only 2:32, and was released in 1967 on the album Surrealistic Pillow. If you've read Lewis Carroll's Alice novels then you'll recognise all the characters in the song.