Making a splash

28 Wednesday Apr 2021

Posted by sconzani in coastal fauna, fish

Tags

British fish, Cardiff Bay, Chelon labrosus, Grey mullet, Thick-lipped grey mullet, Thick-lipped mullet, Thicklip mullet

I was taking a break from not seeing the birds I was looking for on the edge of Cardiff Bay yesterday, when a loud splash drew my eye down to the water. These fish, a shoal of at least ten, perhaps more, were swirling and weaving around each other, presumably feeding.

Officially known as Thick-lipped mullet (Chelon labrosus), they are also frequently called Thick-lipped grey mullet, Thicklip mullet, Grey mullet and various other combinations of those words.

I wasn’t able to judge their size accurately, but it seems they can grow up to 75cm in length, though they mature when around 30cm at between four and six years of age. They thrive in ‘low salinity environments’ like Cardiff Bay and are often ‘found in closely shoaling schools near the surface’, just like those I saw.

They feed ‘on organic and algal material found on the upper surface sediments and mud, with the indigestible material being filtered out by the gill rakers’. I’m not sure I’d want to put any sediments or mud from Cardiff Bay in my mouth, so their filtration system must be first rate to survive the pollution.

I have to admit that they were very calming to watch, and I gained some appreciation for why people have aquariums, though I do prefer creatures to be wild and free.
Credit: Today’s fishy facts came from the UK Fish info website.

Catch of the day

05 Monday Apr 2021

Posted by sconzani in birds, fish

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

birding, birdwatching, British birds, British freshwater fish, Great Crested Grebe, grebe eats fish, Perch

It amazes me sometimes how birds manage to swallow the seemingly too large fish they catch. This was one such event, witnessed during a walk around Cardiff Bay on Friday, when I witnessed a Great crested grebe lunching on a Perch. I presume it wouldn’t have required dinner after this feast!

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129/366 Along the Ely

08 Friday May 2020

Posted by sconzani in birds, fish, nature

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

birding, British birds, British fish, duckling, Ely embankment, Grey wagtail, Mallard, Thick-lipped grey mullet, wagtail fledglings

Yesterday’s walk along the Ely river embankment was a mix of treats and unexpectedness. The first unexpected treat was the large number of both Sand and House martins flying low along the embankment: the air around me was alive with their close flypasts and their noisy chirruping. I’ve no photos of them – I was too intent on enjoying their proximity.

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Next up was the sight of a family of Grey wagtails, two adults and their three offspring, flitting about amongst the stones at the water’s edge.

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The Grey wagtail fledgling helps to show the size of the fish

While watching the wagtails, I noticed the water churning at various points along the river’s edge. It was being caused by large fish, feeding on the weed that’s growing on the stones just under the water. Thanks to one of my Twitter pals, Tate, I later learned they were Thick-lipped grey mullet, which can grow ‘to huge sizes’ and which are ‘mostly a saltwater fish but can tolerate fresh water quite far up rivers’.

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After unexpectedly bumping in to a birding friend and enjoying a chat to a real live person (a rare treat in these days of lockdown), my final wild treat was seeing these two Mallard ducklings, meandering along the river with their mother.

200508 duckling (1)

311/365 Mermaid’s purse

07 Thursday Nov 2019

Posted by sconzani in coastal fauna, fish, nature, seaside

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

Cuckmere Haven, Mermaid's purse, ray eggcase

I found this egg case on the beach at Cuckmere Haven a week or so ago. With such a leathery, tough outer skin, it’s easy to see how well this could protect the embryo that must once have been inside.

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I checked the Shark Trust website’s identification page and, given the south coast location, I think this eggcase might belong to a ray, perhaps a Spotted ray (Raja montagui) or an Undulate ray (Raja undulata).

I’m not sure where the name Mermaid’s purse came from – perhaps it’s simply because the eggcases come from the sea, are vaguely purse-shaped and hold something valuable inside them.

Fisher extraordinaire

12 Monday Nov 2018

Posted by sconzani in birds, fish, nature, winter

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

bird fishing, birding, birdwatching, British birds, Cardiff Bay, Cardiff Bay wetlands, Great Crested Grebe, grebe fishing

It was a lovely late autumn day, with a bit of a nip in the air but gloriously blue skies overhead and still a little heat in the sun. It was the perfect day, in fact, to stand on the boardwalk at Cardiff Bay Wetlands Reserve and watch this Great crested grebe catching itself breakfast, morning tea, lunch, afternoon tea, dinner and supper, all in the space of just 6 minutes (I can tell from the times on my photographs).

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No wonder this successful little fisher-bird was grinning so broadly as it headed into the reeds for a snooze!

181112 great crested grebe (6)

Dead fish at Marazion

08 Sunday Jan 2017

Posted by sconzani in birds, fish, nature

≈ 8 Comments

Tags

dead fish, fishermen dumping fish, gulls feeding on dead fish, Marazion Beach, sardines, St Michael's Mount

Our first stop on day two of ‘Christmas in Cornwall’ was at Marazion beach for a wander and some photographs of the sublime silhouette that was St Michael’s Mount. But there was a surprise in store for us, and rather a smelly surprise at that.

On this and preceeding days, thousands of dead fish had washed up at various Cornish beaches, and here the high-tide line was awash with them, mostly sardines but some mackerel and herring as well. I read later, on the BBC website, that the problem was caused by fishing boats catching so many fish in their nets that they were at risk of capsizing or sinking so were having to release part of their catch. Unfortunately the fish rarely survive this catch-and-release process.

Though this was obviously a horror story for the fish, it was a dream come true for the seabirds, and, as we watched, a huge flock of gulls and the occasional cormorant were feasting on the fish in the waves just offshore. It was sensational to watch them, constantly dipping down to wave level and rarely coming up without a fish in their beaks. Hundreds more birds were bobbing about on the sea just beyond the breakers, probably too full to move. And, on the beach, too, the crows were enjoying this plentiful pre-Christmas bounty. It was both a macabre and marvellous introduction to St Michael’s Mount.

The slippery tale of the eel and the cormorant

20 Wednesday Jul 2016

Posted by sconzani in birds, fish, nature

≈ 15 Comments

Tags

Cormorant, eel, struggle between cormorant and eel

Once upon a time there was a very lazy cormorant that lived on a big lake in a large city. It often couldn’t be bothered looking for food and on this particular day it hadn’t eaten anything for a few days so its tummy was rumbling. It looked around the lake to see what might make the most delicious lunch for the least amount of effort.

160719 eel cormorant (1)

Just at that very moment a huge eel came slithering past and the cormorant thought, ‘Aha! What a tasty lunch that would be, and that eel is so big I wouldn’t have to eat again for several days.’ The cormorant grabbed the eel with its long strong beak and opened its mouth as wide as it possibly could – and, if you’ve ever seen a cormorant open its mouth, you’ll know that’s pretty wide!

160719 eel cormorant (2)

Down, down, down its throat slithered the eel.

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But the cormorant’s tummy wasn’t big enough to fit such an enormous meal and, of course, the eel didn’t want to die. It had a lot more lake-slithering to do. So, it wiggled and wriggled and slid back out of the cormorant’s mouth.

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Of course, the cormorant didn’t want to let such a lovely big lunch get away, so it tried again. Gulp, gulp, gulp, down went the eel. Wiggle, wriggle, wiggle, out slid the eel.

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It was a mighty struggle between two very determined opponents and it went on for at least half an hour but, eventually, because the comorant was so lazy and hadn’t eaten for a few days, it ran out of energy. Off swam the eel, relieved and happy to have escaped the cormorant’s lunch menu!

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