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!