Burnham Beeches

I decided to try my luck at Burnham Beeches as I had not visited for a while.  A reasonable amount of bird song but nothing out of the ordinary.  The moat was wetter than my last visit but still no Mandarins.  I did come across a Greater Spotted Woodpecker nest right next to the path and by waiting a few minutes I managed to get the following photos.

Just arriving at the nest hole.  Approaching from the side.

Looking around and in the hole before entering.

I assume the young were very small as the adult entered the nest hole.
They were however very noisy.

A tight squeeze on leaving!

Making a swift exit.

Little Marlow - No Birds

A few non-bird photos from today.

A bit of a monster Carp close to the bank.

Possibly a different Carp taken a little later.  Same fish below turning away.

A group of about six Carp were seen swimming together.

Common Blue Damselfly (Hopefully)

Large Red Damselfly (I think)

Little Stint Surprise

A message from Adam Bassett at 9am found me in the shower, so I did not pick up the message for about 10 minutes.  I decided to pop down to Little Marlow to see the bird, only to receive a message from Adam to say that it had flown off with a Little Ringed Plover but maybe not gone far.  So I parked in Coldmoorholm Lane and checked out the east side of the sand spit.  No sign.  Adam was on the west bank and he could not see it.

The bird was not seen again all morning but it did re-appear about 5:30pm when Kevin Holt found it.  So back down to lake where Keven had been joined by Graham Smith.  Adam had also returned and I was soon on the bird.  Unfortunately very distant on one of the further areas of the sand spit.  So the photo below is pretty rubbish!!

Little Stint - My first at LMGP for some years.

Arncott MOD and Otmoor Birding

Jackie Newcombe, Dave Cleal and myself met at 5am or so for the drive to Arncott MOD site for the Bucks Bird Club meeting, led by Paul Watts.  The hope was to hear/see Nightingale, Turtle Dove and Grasshopper Warbler, plus a variety of other birds.  About fifteen members managed the early start.

Despite there being three singing Nightingales in 2016 on this site, none have appeared as yet, so we had to be content with Turtle Dove, Grasshopper Warbler, Garden Warbler, Lesser Whitethroat, Whitethroat, Willow Warbler, Chiffchaff, Blackcap and Cuckoo.  Fortunately the Turtle Doves and Gropper showed well and everyone got good views of the reeling bird.

Click on images to enlarge.

Grasshopper Warbler - The star of the show at Arncott.
Not easy to see in my photo but it is there!!

Turtle Dove - Poor light early morning and rather distant birds did not help photograpy

At 9am the Arncott viist ended and the three of us left Arncott and took the fairly short drive to Otmoor to complete the mornings birding.  The highlights were the Common Cranes but also great to get great views of Cuckoos and Turtle Doves.  Slightly more distant than the latter were three Hobbies, three Black-tailed Godwits, a summer plumaged male Ruff, two Ringed Plovers, a Marsh Harrier, a drumming Snipe, lots of Redshank, Lapwings, Reed Warblers, Sedge Warblers and Reed Buntings.  A good mornings birding!

Hobby - Three were perched on posts on the reserve.
Perhaps too cold and dull for their prey to be available.

Common Cranes - Two seen to fly in on the far side of the reserve.
They were then feeding in the far ditches.

Cuckoo - Several we very active on the reserve and seen flying along the reed fringed water
where Reed Warblers were singing.  (If they only knew!)

Turtle Dove - Nice to see this now scarce bird back at Otmoor.

Black-tailed Godwits - Three were feeding in one of the pools.
It was difficult to get a photo without their heads being under water!

Sedge Warbler - Several were singing by the main bridleway.

Wood Sandpiper at Marlow Low Grounds

I received a Tweet from Simon Ramm to say that he had found a Wood Sandpiper and Greenshank at Marlow Low Grounds, late in the evening of 5th May.  The following morning another Tweet came in, this time from Adam Bassett. to say that the Wood Sandpiper was still present.

I was on site by about 8:30 and immediately found the bird but it spent much of the time behind some vegetation.  Eventually it moved into the open and I managed to get a few photos.  I have seen Wood Sandpipers in the county several times before but it is a scarce migrant, so always worth a look.

The sun was behind the bird making viewing and photography difficult!

Also present was a Snipe which was interesting as this is potential breeding habitat.  The whole area around the lake looks superb from wildlife.  I must visit more often!

Kentish Plover - A County Tick

Originally discovered on 30th April, news did not break until early the following when Dave Bilcock found it and put the news out.
I had a call from Mike Wallen at 8:20 to advise me of the birds presence and by about 9:10 I was on site.
I found it really difficult to find the bird in the camera viewfinder, let alone focus on the bird.  The photo below is the best I could do but is at least a record shot.  The important thing is that I got a county tick!

Kentish Plover - Its in there somewhere!!