Roundhay Park

Iceland gull

Yesterday was a busy morning, then the gale force winds hit so it was today I went over to Leeds to see if I couldn't get a photo of the Iceland gull at Roundhay Park. In the event it would have been more remarkable if I couldn't, there were people taking selfies with it. It was a nice-looking subadult bird, the eye looked dark so I think it's a first-Winter bird but I may be mistaken.

I used one of my Delay Repay compensatory returns for the trip out to Leeds and the X98 bus to the gates of Roundhay Park. As the bus passed the junction with Easterly Road I took the two red kites circling Roundhay Road as a good omen. 

The path from the gate leads directly to the lake in next to no time. The trees were noisy with the songs of robins, great tits and woodpigeons and I could hear the black-headed gulls before I could see the lake.

We'd passed through umpteen bands of wind, rain, sun and overcast cloud on the train, if anything the bands of weather passed by more quickly as I walked around the park. Two passing showers of derisory drizzle passed by the time I got to the lake.

Roundhay Park 

I had a quick scan round to get my bearings. I'd seen a lot of photos of the Iceland gull perched on a wooden pile next to the café in the corner. I wouldn't be lucky enough to have it sat there waiting for me would I? I bloody would.

Iceland gull

By the time I'd wandered over to that corner the Iceland gull had decided to have a swim round with the other gulls and waterfowl. Most of the gulls were black-headed, there were a handful of herring gulls and a second-calendar-year common gull had me scratching my head for an embarrassing few minutes. Mind you, the more I learn about gulls the less confident I am in their identification and I'm starting to second-guess myself when I see black-headed gulls. Luckily for me the Iceland gull was both unmistakeable and very obliging.

Iceland gull

A herd of a couple of dozen mute swans was mugging for scraps by the café. A small raft of half a dozen tufted ducks drifted about in this corner and handful of goosanders dozed nearby. There were only a couple of coots, it's that time of year when the hordes of noisy, squabbling hooligans that have spent most of the year carpeting municipal ponds and lakes suddenly go quiet and invisible.

Iceland gull, goosanders and black-headed gull

The Iceland gull decided it was going to steam through the gap between a drake goosander and two ducks. A sharp peck from the drake goosander persuaded it otherwise.

Iceland gull, goosanders and black-headed gull

The wooden piles hadn't been completely deserted, cormorants dried their wings, a couple of herring gulls and a black-headed gull perched and loafed.

Herring gull and mute swans

Mute swans

Cormorant

Mute cygnet

I turned the corner around the café and when the piles were back in view there was the Iceland gull perched stop one of them. The bright, pale pink legs and feet were very conspicuous.

Iceland gull

Iceland gull

Iceland gull, herring gull, pigeons, mute swan and black-headed gull

Job done I carried on with a walk round the lake, which was very agreeable and the changeable weather added extra visual interest though I was extremely grateful the rain was only light and occasional. 

Roundhay Park 

The path by the lake

Roundhay Park 

Noisy groups of Canada geese cruised the open water and mallards skulked by the banks. Pairs of mute swans barked, grunted, squeaked and creaked as they picked fights with small rafts of mute swans apparently minding their own business and small rafts of mute swans picked fights with passing singletons and then with each other. Goosanders and tufted ducks cruised about steering clear of any mute swans and who can blame them.

Goosander

Great tits, robins, song thrushes and wrens sang in the surrounding trees and bushes and I noticed the ring-necked parakeets had made their way up here. Blue tits, long-tailed tits, siskins and goldfinches quietly foraged in the tops of the trees by the lake while moorhens and mallards fossicked about their roots.

Roundhay Castle 

The top end of the lake from Roundhay Castle 

I had a nosy at Roundhay Castle, a folly built in 1811, then took a path swinging through woodland back to the lake. My reaction time was too slow to catch the red kite flying low over the castle and out of sight over the woodlands. Singing chaffinches and calling nuthatches added to the songscape.

Greats Head Beck

I'd been disappointed not to find any grey wagtails on the becks running through the woods. As the path turned and met the lake there was a pair of them on the bankside.

Grey wagtail

Grey wagtail
This is the male.

Cormorants

A little further on a line of piles jutting out into the water was ornamented by loafing cormorants.

Roundhay Park 

Roundhay Park 

Now that I was walking into the sun it was staying out from behind the clouds more often than not, which made the scenery even more picturesque but made taking photos of the birds on the water that bit more tricky. I'd noticed a distinct lack of grebes on the walk up to Roundhay Castle, my faith in the scheme of things was restored by a pair of great crested grebes fishing on this side of the lake. A large perch, spiny fins all erect, took some careful manoeuvring before swallowing.

Great crested grebe and perch

Mute swans

The sunshine triggered even more punch-ups amongst the mute swans and the pairs indulging in slow, silent and stately courtship dances were insufficient to convince bystanders of the placidity of the mute swan. The pairs of Canada geese brawling by the dam had the grace not to pretend they weren't noisy hooligans. That incident was worth watching if only for the demonstration that a Canada goose can dive underwater as quickly and with as little disturbance to the water as any dabchick.

Walking over to Wetherby Road for the bus back to Leeds

I didn't have long to wait for the bus back to Leeds. While I was waiting I checked the options for the route home. As my ticket restricted me to Northern's train it turned out, paradoxically, that I'd get home quicker by going back to Manchester via Sheffield as that would make the necessary connection with my local train. And so I did. The red kites flying overhead just after the bus passed Roundhay Clock reassured me they hadn't been an hallucination on the way in.

The rookeries of the Derbyshire Peak District were in full swing as the sun set on a nicely successful day.