Patch' Birding 2020 and a 2020 Year' List

As with 2019, Birds seen on the 'Patch' will include Birds seen from the Footpath which runs up to the Thames from Crabtree Manorway North (in Belvedere) and thence downstream from the Thames Path, to just beyond Corinthian Manorway, in Erith.

Bird Species seen on the 'Patch' during 2020:

Blackbird

Black Redstart

Black-Headed Gull
Black-Tailed Godwit
Collared Dove
Common Gull
Cormorant
Curlew
Dunlin
Dunnock
Egyptian Goose
Gadwall

Great Tit

Grey Heron

Grey Wagtail
Herring Gull
House Sparrow

Kestrel
Lapwing
Lesser Black-Backed Gull
Linnet

Little Egret

Long-Tailed Tit
Mallard
Moorhen

Mute Swan
Oystercatcher
Pied Wagtail
Redshank
Ringed Plover

Rock Pipit
Robin
Sanderling viz.

Shelduck
Starling
Turnstone viz.

and Teal

We also maintain a 2020' Year List viz.

Avocet

Blackbird

Black Redstart viz.

Black-Headed Gull

Black-Tailed Godwit
Blue Tit
Buzzard
Canada Goose
Carrion Crow
Chaffinch
Chiffchaff
Collared Dove 
Common Gull
Common Sandpiper
Common Tern
Coot
Cormorant
Curlew
Dunlin
Dunnock 
Egyptian Goose
Gadwall
Goldfinch

Great Black-Backed Gull
Great Crested Grebe
Great Spotted Woodpecker
Great Tit

Green Sandpiper
Green Woodpecker
Grey Heron
Grey Wagtail
Greylag Goose
Herring Gull
House Sparrow
Jackdaw
Jay

Kestrel
Lapwing
Lesser Black-Backed Gull
Linnet
Little Egret
Long-Tailed Tit
Magpie
Moorhen
Mute Swan
Nuthatch
Oystercatcher

Peregrine Falcon
Pied Wagtail
Pochard

Redshank

Redwing
Ringed Plover
Ring-Necked Parakeet
Robin

Rock Pipit
Sanderling
Shelduck
Shoveler
Song Thrush
Sparrowhawk
Starling
Stonechat
Swift
Teal
Tufted Duck
Turnstone
Whitethroat
and Wood Pigeon

All seen locally.

The 'Dearest of Souls'

They live in/by Southmere Lake and are seemingly in-separable:

Some Christmas Day Lichens on the Sea Wall in the Erith area (Grid Reference TQ5079)

Lichens present include:

[i] Caloplaca oasis viz. the clustered orange apothecia visible below the Caloplaca saxicola ...

[ii] Caloplaca saxicola...

[iii]Candelariella aurella viz. the lemon/yellow apothecia below the Caloplaca oasis...

[iv] (probable) Lecidella stigmatea viz. the black apothecia without a seeming thallus. It is apparently unwise to identify black apothecia without microscopy... 

[v] Phaeophyscia nigricans (we are told but not really visible to us)...

and [vi] Phaeophyscia orbicularis (just about visible, lower-right of the picture)...

Christmas Eve' Lichens

After collecting and delivering the Christmas Eve' Flowers, we looked around the Grounds of All Saints', Belvedere, for Lichens and found some (to be confirmed) Caloplaca flavescens viz.

2020 is coming to a Close

So: this Morning we sent off [I] our last Batch of 2020 Butterfly' Records* , [ii] our full 2020 Hoverfly' Records and [iii] a second Batch of Lichen' Records.

* Seen on 30 May and totally unexpected. The Record was submitted to Butterfly Conservation and per their 'First Butterfly Sightings 2020', this was the first (confirmed) Essex Skipper Butterfly Record in the UK for 2020:

God Willing, it all starts again on 1 January 2021.

Lichens on the Sea Wall in the Belvedere area (Grid Reference TQ5080)

Caloplaca decipiens (described informally as a sorediate version of Caloplaca saxicola) viz.

Caloplaca saxicola viz.

Lecanora muralis

Physcia caesia 

Xanthoria calcicola viz.

and Xanthoria elegans (growing in companionable proximity to a Lecanora species) viz.

Additionally, we saw saw: Lecanora chlarotera, Lecidella elaeochroma and Xanthoria parietina on trees growing beside the Sea Wall. Also unidentified Physcia species. 

So: nine (9) identified Species of Lichen. 

A Black Redstart on a Silo beside the Erith Docks

We initially thought Pied Wagtail: it was some distance from us. But our fourth Black Redstart (three locally of which two self-found and one at Dungeness) viz.

Chunky, Fluffy Clouds: seen from Home

We have submitted some Lichen Records to the British Lichen Society!

Not quite as scary as our first Sumission of Records to the Kent Botanical Recording Group: the Submission included a handful of Records for:

Caloplaca saxicole
Lecanora muralis

Physcia caesia

Xanthoria calcicola

Xanthoria elegans

and Xanthoria parietina

Red Sky at Night: Shepherd's Delight

We seem to be having quite a few Red Skies in the Evening (or rather, late-Afternoon) at the moment:

The Wild Flower Society', Winter Plant Hunt 2020/21

We will be having a go at the Winter Plant Hunt (for Plants in flower) which kicks off on 1 December 2020 and runs to the end of February 2021: during which time we might hopefully have seen a native Bluebell flowering locally in Lesnes Abbey Woods or on Bostall Heath. 

And as Spring gets going on 1 March, we will, God Willing, be thinking of Butterflies, Hairy-Footed Flower-Bees &c. again.

Footnote: somehow, the Winter Heliotropes, growing beside the Footpath running between Norman Road North and the Thames Path, have again evaded the attentions of the Council Strimmers, so we will hopefully be able to include Winter Heliotrope in our List of flowering Plants viz.

We keep our eyes focused on the Ground: but not for Lichens

It's been a while since we looked for Wild Flowers, so as we walked to/from the local Shops (not very far) we kept our eyes focused on the Ground (ignoring Lichens this time): spotting:

Annual Meadow-Grass (having just become aware of the existence of Early Meadow-Grass, we shall be keeping our eyes peeled: the Botanical Society of Britain and Ireland', Distribution Map, shows it has been seen locally)

Annual Mercury

Common Chickweed

Fat Hen

Groundsel

Henbit Dead-Nettle

Jersey Cudweed

Pellitory-of-the-Wall

Sow-Thistle

and Sweet Violet

Hoverfly Records 2020

Our Hoverfly Recording is way down on previous Years: currently standing at three hundred and thirty (330) or so Records.

But better than nothing we suppose. We will submit the Records to the UK Hoverfly Recording Scheme at Year-End.

That being said, we added five (5) Records today: including this (male) Eristalis tenax seen on the (Variegated) Ivy growing beside the Allotments:

Some Lichens on Bostall Heath (the Royal Borough of Greenwich)

We think these might all be Cladonia sp. viz. 

Some Lichens in Lesnes Abbey Park

A Seal on the Thames' Mud

There was just a single Seal on the Thames' Mud, close to the former Thamesmead Golf Course/Driving Range viz.

A Clouded Yellow Butterfly

We first saw a Common Blue Butterfly beside the Thames Path close to the Waste Incinerator. Then a Red Admiral Butterfly beside the Thames Path, close to the former Thamesmead Golf Course/Driving Range and finally, a Clouded Yellow Butterfly close to where we saw the Common Blue Butterfly:

Some Lichens beside the Thames Path in the Thamesmead area

Now we are booked to learn about Lichens with the British Lichen Society, we are hopeful that over the course of time, God Willing, we will be able to put more Names to Faces. It's gonna be a bit of a slog though.

Lichens seen growing beside the Thames Path in the Thamesmead area include:

Pretty Clouds

We had been cleaning out the Pond when we looked up and saw that the Clouds were looking rather pretty this morning viz.

A 'Mackeral Sky'? If it is, we understand a Mackeral Sky is composed of Cirrocumulous Clouds which are small, high clumps of Cloud, containing Ice Crystals.

Our first Rock Pipit of the Winter

We peeped over the Sea-Wall and there she/he was viz.

We had Bicycled from Woolwich: other Birds seen included: