Migrant Curlew

Found by Alan Stevens mid morning, the bird was still present when I arrived at about 5pm.  It was feeding on the sand spit and moving around over a wide area. At about 5:30 the bird stopped feeding and moved to the waters edge and began calling from time to time.  Then about 5:50 the bird called and took off flying off to the north-east. 

Curlew

Wigeon - Two of the remaining Wigeon on the sand spit, now in smart breeding plumage.

Common Scoter at Dorney Lake

After hearing from Dave Cleal that there was a Common Scoter on Dorney Lake, I thought it was worth a look.  It is probably the same bird as reported by Kevin Duncan on 27th but with a large passage of this species recently, it could be a different individual.

It was where Dave had last reported it earlier, on the main rowing lake around the 750 to 1000 metre markers and closer to the north bank.  There was a lot of activity on the lake with lots of rowers practicing in singles, doubles, fours and eights, but this did not seem to perturb the Scoter.  It just moved to one side or simply dived.  It is unusual to see much apart from Great Crested Grebes and Coots on the main rowing lake and I have always thoughts that the thousands of lane markers may put other wildfowl off.  However the Scoter did not seem to mind at all.

Common Scoter

Light conditions were not very good and I had to wait until the bird was off at an angle to reduce the glare.  At least I was closer than from the south bank.

Reed Bunting

Another walk around the lake provided a better view of the male Reed Bunting.  They are surely breeding around the lake.

The male Reed Bunting that is paired the female in yesterdays blog post.

Goldcrest and Reed Bunting

A walk around part of the lake at Little Marlow on a sunny morning was fairly unproductive from a point of view of migrant or scarce birds.  However I did get excellent views of several common species such as the Reed Bunting and Goldcrest pictured below.  Also present were two Shelduck and two Oystercatchers.

Reed Bunting - This female was obviously breeding nearby.

Goldcrest - A species that is normally quite difficult to photograph.
However this bird seemed obvious to my presence.

Back at home Spring was arriving with several insects seen..Brimstone and Peacock butterflies when seen in the garden along with up to 30 Ladybirds emerging from a Box bush.

A few of the emerging Ladybirds

Garganey and other birds

I was not able to visit Little Marlow until late morning and by that time Adam Bassett had already found a nice drake Garganey and a Little Ringed Plover, both new arrivals.  Garganey seem to be a bit more regular at Little Marlow in recent years, but are still a scarce migrant species. As for Little Ringed Plover we can hope they will stay here are breed.

The drake Garganey as viewed distantly from the N bank.

Garganey - Slightly closer from the E bank but asleep most of the time.

Little Ringed Plover - A record shot as focus not great.

On the main island a pair of Oystercatchers were feeding.  As far as we know they have not bred in the area but maybe this year.  Maybe the island would be a suitable nest site.

Oystercatchers - On the main island.

Lesser Redpoll - A pair were investigating the branches overhanging
the west bank and seemed oblivious to nearby birders.

Not a great photo but a Common Chiffchaff and not the
Siberian Chiffchaff that has been present recently.

Little Marlow Walk

A walk around the lake this afternoon was reasonably productive.  No great rarities but a nice variety of decent birds.
A Kingfisher fishing along the ditch along the area was a little too far away to photograph but none the less a nice view in the sunshine.  I then prepared to cross the quagmire, leading to the bridge across the stream, only to find that Tarmac had fulfilled their commitment to improve the path to the bridge (as below). Unfortunately the path beyond the bridge has not been improved!

I then came across a singing Treecreeper in the trees that go out to the fishing point in the "Works" bay.  I could not see the bird but did not try that hard.  Then moving to the east side I came across a single Redpoll feeding on some seeds in some low herbage.  It only stayed a short while and no others were seen or heard.

Lesser Redpoll

In the SE corner of the lake I came across two Bullfinches (male and female) stripping buds off of a tall shrub.  They proved difficult to photograph!

Bullfinch

In the same area was a Goldcrest, a species I always find difficult as the little devils never stay still!  This one did at least perch in a slightly more open area than normal.

Goldcrest

Then moving to the south bank I started counting the Heron and Cormorant nests only to find recently hatched birds in some of the nests. In the end I concluded there were 10 Herons nest (possibly a few more) and 33 Cormorant nests.

Cormorants with young.

Grey Herons- The young can just be seen.

I then tried to find the Siberian Chiffchaff that Alan Stevens had reported.  There was no sign of the bird in the reedbed but a Chiffchaff with very pale underparts was feeding in tall bushes just of the other side of the railway.  Unfortunately my views were not good and I could not really make out the upperparts given the distance and the light conditions.  Hopefully it will stay a few more days and allow a better view.

Then onto the Gull roost.  At 5pm gulls were still streaming in and I estimated that there was 5000 or so in total.  2500 Blck-headed Gulls, 2500 Common Gulls, 200 Herring Gulls and some Lesser Black-backed Gulls.  One adult Mediterranean Gulls was also present, again opting to roost in the middle of the Common Gulls, which are generally further away from the water than the Black-headed Gulls.  I did not stay quite to the bitter end and watch the Jackdaws arrive so who knows what else came in late!

Grey Wagtail

A walk around part of Little Marlow GP did not present many photo opportunites, except for this Grey Wagtail which was intent on feeding along the south bank.  Even though I approached quite close it did not seem to want to fly away.  Another Grey Wagtail a little further along the bank was showing similar behavior.  I do wonder if it was due to the slight northerly breeze which may have been blowing food on the surface of the water, close to the bank.

Grey Wagtail

Deer Deer

A visit to Church Wood, Hedgerley in search of Lesser Spotted Woodpecker failed to find the target species.  Maybe they are no longer here.  However I did manage to see a reasonable selection of woodland birds on a fine sunny morning.  Greater Spotted Woodpecker, Nuthatch, Jay and various Tits were seen, but the best views were of Deer. Two Roes Deer were found near the top of the wood as were perhaps four or five Muntjac.

Roe Deer - One of two seen

Muntjac - These proved difficult to photograph!

Surprise Kittiwake

Another visit to Little Marlow GP to see the gull roost and hopefully see the Glaucous Gull again. I arrived at about the same time as Jackie Newcombe and we searched through the gulls from the viewpoint but found nothing of note (but plenty still arriving). However an Oystercatcher was feeding which is the first since August.  We wandered down to the south bank and got a wider view of the gulls.  Numbers were gradually building up but again nothing of real note apart from an adult Greater Black-backed Gull.  On walking back up the west bank we stopped at the point and managed to pick up an adult Mediterranean Gull on the far side of the sand pit.  I then searched the closer gulls and came across a colour ringed Black-headed Gull "White 23H3" (This was Ringed as a chick at Cemey Wick, Cotswold Water Park, GLOUCESTERSHIRE on 10th June 2013. It was also seen at Dorney Common on 3rd Aug 2014 by Kevin Duncan).  Having photographed the colour ringed gull I continued to scan the neared gulls (mostly Black-heads) in the hope of finding another colour ringed bird.  However, I came across a very clean cut small gull with a yellow bill and black legs.  It soon came clear that it was a Kittiwake!  I managed to get a few photos before it took off and flew off NE and circled to the north, apparently gone.

We walked up to the viewpoint by the bench and found half a dozen birders, none of whom had picked up the Kittiwake.  However we continued to search through the Gulls where two or three Mediterranean Gulls were present.  Then a short while later I spotted the Kittiwake almost in the same place as had been earlier, so everyone had a good view.  I assume it was the same individual although a second bird is not out of the question.

Then at 17:25 the Glaucous Gull arrived giving the remaining birders a good view.  I assume it remained and roosted.

It was another large roost with the majority being Common Gulls and many Black-headed Gulls also.  A relatively small number of Lesser Black-backed and Herring Gulls and just a single Greater Black-backed Gull.  However numbers were down on those present a week or two ago.

Kittiwake - A smart adult which rather strangely showed
some small white spots in the black wing tips.  

Black-headed Gull - "White 23H3".

Garden Blackcap

The first in our garden this winter.  It only stayed for a few minutes.  Possibly an over wintering bird moving through.

Blackcap

Glaucous Gull again and colour ringed gulls

A late afternoon visit to Little Marlow GP mainly concentrated on the gull roost which gradually built during the time I was there. When I arrived Dave Cleal was already present and had seen a Mediterranean Gull but had been lost in the mass of gulls.  In searching for the Med Gull I did come across several colour ringed gulls.  These were :-
Black-headed Gull with white colour ring on right leg with code "AJ66". This was ringed in Germany (Helgoland) on 12 June 2015 and was seen at Little Marlow on 7th December.  See my previous post.
Black-headed Gull with white colour ring on right leg and code "507".  This bird was ringed as a 3rd calendar year + female on 27 March 2011 in Svanemollebugten, Copenhagen, Denmark.  It has subsequently been seen in Denmark several times and at Little Marlow during the winters of 2012/13, 2014/15 and 2015/16.  It is incredible how this individual returns to Little Marlow!
Herring Gull with orange colour ring on left leg with code starting with the letters "G9".  There were presumably one or two more characters but these could not be read. However Adam Bassett contacted me to say that me had also seen this bird and the ring was "G9MT", another bird from the North Thames Ringing Group.

Dave left about 16:30 and I carried on searching through the gull roost.  I came across the adult Mediterranean Gull but it was on the far side of the sand spit and only it's head could be seen.  I did notice that the number of larger Gulls was higher than previous evenings and on another scan through the mass of birds, I came across the same Glaucous Gull that I had previous seen on 27th February (link to post).  The bird was still present until 17:45 at least by which time Paul Watts had joined me.

Black-headed Gull - White 507.The code can just be read.

Glaucous Gull - The 1st winter bird