When I heard that a group of Parrot Crossbills had been found in Swinley Forest, Berkshire, just 45 minutes drive from home, I knew I had to make the effort to see them. Despite having done a fair bit of birding abroad I have never seen a Parrot Crossbill, so a chance to add a species to my world life list!
Mike Collard, Dave Cleal and myself headed down there, parked on a housing estate close to the forest/heath. With a few directions from Adam Bassett, who was just leaving, we soon located the birds after about a 15 minute walk. About a dozen birders were already watching the bird, so that made finding the flock easy.
We were walking the dog when I heard a Chiffchaff calling above us in some tall Willows. It was very active and flitting between the branches calling a lot. I rather like the "lucky" shot when I got it in flight. It shoes the relatively short wings (compared to Willow Warbler) rather well.
The short drive over to Staines reservoir with Simon Ramm was successful in seeing what is thought to be the American race of the Shore Lark, known in the US as Horned Lark "Eremophila alpestris" and only recorded in the UK a handful of times.
When we arrived we were told it was being watched a short way along the causeway. However within a minute or so we discovered that the gathered birders, perhaps 30 or so, had lost track of it. So we spent the next hour or so scanning the banks of the reservoir. Eventually Simon spotted a small group of Linnets on the west bank of the northern section, close to where the Horned Lark had last been seen. I focused on these and low and behold there was the Lark feeding close to the Linnets. It was certainly hard to see and out of range for binoculars. A bit frustrating as it had been seen down to a matter of a few metres 2-3 hours earlier! Soon everybody else was on the bird and happy to have least sen it.
As the bird was such a long way off it was hard to even see the bird in my Nikon compact camera viewfinder! I could see the bird more clearly in my mobile phone but some of the detail is lost with the digital zoom. What with a brisk wind shaking the scope, the photos are purely record shots but an interesting comparison.
Four colour ringed Black-headed Gulls at Little Marlow GP in five days is not bad.
First of all was "White EA4F" on 19th November.
"White EA4F" was ringed as a nestling on 31st May 2014 at Griend, Holland. It was first seen at Little Marlow GP in February 2016. It reappeared in October and November 2016 and after that not again until this week.
White EA4F movement
Then on 22nd was "Yellow 2PJH" and "Yellow EMJN".
"Yellow 2PJH" is a bird ringed by the North Thames Ringing Group, so a relatively local bird. It was ringed in March 2016 as an adult at Pitsea Landfill and subsequently seen at Little Marlow several times between Nov 2016 and Feb 2017.
"Yellow EMJN" was ringed in Zoutleeuw, Belgium, about 420Km distance, on 2nd June 2017 in the nest. More information on the Belgium ringing scheme can be found on this link.
Recoveries of all Black-headed Gulls ringed at Zoutleeuw, Belgium. The Little Marlow marker is the most northerly
Finally on 23rd was "Yellow 2KRC"
"Yellow 2KRC" was ringed by the North Thames Ringing Group at Pitsea Landfill Site 21st March 2015 as an adult. It was first seen at Little Marlow in January 2016 and also in February and March. It was then not seen until the following winter when it was seen mant times bewteen November and February 2017. So a similar pattern again with it being seen this winter once again.
"Yellow 2KRC" is a Little Marlow Regular. .
Pitsea Landfill to Little Marlow. Updates to this can be seen at this link.
Snow Buntings and Hawfinches are bit of a strange mix but with a single Snow Bunting not too far away at Wilstone Reservoir (Herts) and Hawfinches still at Great Hampden, I decided to try and take both in during one session.
First stop was Wilstone Reservoir, parked the car, walked up the steps, walked 30 metres along the bank and there it was feeding on the concrete side of the reservoir. Amazingly close with the bird almost vertically below me for a time, at the base of the steep concrete sides to the reservoir. A steady stream of admirers stopped by to view or take photos. One some of mine I had to use the 300mm telephoto lens at less than full zoom to fit the bird in!
The bird was constantly moving around feeding on very small items. According to the discussion on Twitter, this individual originates from Iceland.
A short video of the Snow Bunting feeding actively beneath me.
Then onto Great Hampden where good numbers of Hawfinches had been present since 1st November. I approached the site from the Hampden Hall end. On walking past the church and Turret House I saw 3 Hawfinches land in some tall trees next to the house. I carried on across the path that cuts across the oilseed Rape field and spent about an hour and a half in that area. There were 25 approx seen to fly into the copse in the centre of the field. They arrived in small groups and flew out in one group, so I managed to count reasonably accurately. The birds were again feeding in the seeding Hornbeam in the South side of the copse. It is hard to get close to these birds and the light is not great as the tree is to the South of the footpath. However I did manage to get good scoped views of several birds that were feeding on the outer edges of some of the branches. I also managed to record photos of these. On walking back past the church there were several more Hawfinches moving around and at least one was feeding on Yew berries in an obvious berry laden tree. So I suspect that these were different to the birds to the ones in the copse. So the total count could well have been about 30.
The photos below were all taken at a distance and in fairly poor light, so not the greatest of quality!
A seawatch of a couple of hours did not produce anything except Gannets, Kittiwakes, 5 Common Scoter and the usual common species. Rater strangely the Guillemots were still perched on the nesting cliffs and there was a steady flow of birds flying past the Bill.
Only one Purple Sandpiper was on view today and I managed a couple of short videos. These are delightful birds which are easily overlooked. They are not normally found on the typical wader habitat but on rocky headlands such as that at Portland Bill. It is nice to watch them as they defy the incoming waves.
After leaving the Bill I stopped briefly at Ferrybridge where there were distant Dunlin, Ringed Plover and about 5 Red-breasted Mergansers. Then onto Radipole Lake for another brief visit. I counted 57 Mediterranean Gulls from the RSPB information centre but was told that they often get many more.
Mediterranean Gull - An adult in the car park at Radipole Lake.
Always a great place to go birding even if the winds are all wrong! A bitterly cold wind was keeping most seabirds well out at sea but the sun made it pleasant out of the wind. All I could manage in a brief seawatch was 50+ Auks, mainly Guillimots but a few Razorbills also in there I think. A Great Northern Diver, a few Gannets and a small flock of Scoter was all I got seawatching before the carvery at the Pulpit Inn called.
Away from seawatching, the hoped for Purple Sandpipers that winter at the Bill were present, although only two at present.
One of two Purple Sandpipers doing there best to blend in with the rocks.
Constantly pecking away at some unseen food items.
What are you looking at!
Rock Pipit feeding a short way from the rocks.
One of two Ravens feeding on the grassy slope in front of the coastguard cottages
Note the bulging crop.
A fearsome bill and small eye gives it an "evil" look!
The first full day of a few days in Weymouth turned out to be a bit damp. Some light rain in the morning gave way to dryer periods but it did not stop me walking along the front to Lodmoor RSPB reserve. A good variety of ducks and waders were present along with one or two Marsh Harriers hunting over the reedbeds.
One of the birds I was hoping to see was the Lesser Yellowlegs that had been present since 5th October. However there was no sign to this American vagrant on any of the shallow pools on the south and western sides of the reserve when I arrived. There were however 25+ Snipe, 20+ Black-tailed Godwits, 20+ Dunlin, 2 Ruff, Lapwings and a Redshank. Wildfowl included Shelduck, Gadwall, Wigeon, Shoveler and Teal. Water Rails and Cetti's Warblers could be heard in several areas. Several species of Gulls were present, most notably 7 Mediterranean Gulls.
One of 7 adult Mediterranean Gulls present.
One of the Black-tailed Godwits, most of which were asleep.
A rather smart Lapwing
This Kingfisher was conveniently perched close to the pathway.
Ruff - One of two present.
Two of the Dunlin feeding alog the waters edge.
A size comparison between a Dunlin and two Black-tailed Godwits.
A very confiding Robin was just asking for it's photo to be taken!
The rest of the photos are of the star bird, a Lesser Yellowlegs.
The bird was originally out of view in one of the middle pools but was eventually
flushed by a Marsh Harrier and landed fairly close to the footpath.
I have seen quite a few Lesser Yellowlegs on the far side of the Atlantic
but this was only the second I have seen in the UK,
