Colour Ringed Herring Gull

Herring Gull - A rubbish photo but the best I could get in poor light of this colour ringed bird "Orange PY7T"

This map show the history so far for this bird.

Staines Reservoir Twitch

A quick check on Birdguides about 10am showed that the American Horned Lark was showing on the north side of the causeway.  So with a bright calm morning forecast it looked good to see the bird and maybe get some photos with the sun at my back.  I had previously seen the bird back in November along with Simon Ram but then the bird was over 200 metres away!  I was obviously hoping for something a little closer

About an hour later I arrived on site and found that the bird was towards the east end of the causeway, so a few minutes walking was called for.  Unfortunately the bird had decided to move to the sunny south side of the causeway making light conditions for photography a little tricky as we were facing the sun.  About 30-40 birders were there in the hour or so I was present.  A little surprising mid-week and for a bird that had been around a while.

The bird continued to feed over a 100 metres stretch for the next hour or so.  There was no sign of it moving back to the north side.

American Horned Lark - Light conditions not great but at least only 20-30feet away.

On the way back I was keeping an eye out for the Water Pipits that had been reported but all I saw were a few Meadow Pipits.  However I did find a nice Black-necked Grebe that seemed to be associating with some Pochard.  The photos below were taken through the railings and at an angle!  It was moving around quite a bit so I felt lucky just to get the shots below.

Black-necked Grebe - In the NW corner of the south basin.

Big Garden Birdwatch

Sue and I spent an hour recording the species as part of the RSPBs national census.  We managed 16 species:-
Great Spotted Woodpecker
Great Tit
Blue Tit
Coal Tit
Long-tailed Tit
Woodpigeon
Stock Dove
Pheasant
Dunnock
Robin
Blackbird
Starling
Blackcap
Chaffinch
Goldfinch
Siskin

Enjoyable but frustrating when our regular Nuthatch failed to appear.  Recent daily visitors, a pair of Bullfinches, also failed to show as did Ring-necked Parakeet.  A few weeks ago they were permanent adornments to the feeders but appear to have left the area (for now!).

Great Spotted Woodpecker - A garden regular . WE had two different females and a male in the hour

Blackcap - This female has been a regular for a week or so. 

Long-tailed Tit - One of seven seen.

Siskins - We saw three at one point. 

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Lesser Redpoll - Too late for the birdwatch but nice to see all the same. 

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Marlow Area Birding

I was just off out birding when I heard that a Meditteranean Gull hd been found by Mike Mayall at Little Marlow GP.  Having failed to see one here on my last few visits to the site, I thought I might as well change my plans and take a look.

When I got there I failed to see the bird as I presume it was out of sight, but after a while I saw it on the water bathing.  It soon moved onto the sand spit where it stayed for some time.  It was rather distant so the photos are not great but a nice smart bird to see all the same.  There were several hundred other gulls present but nothing of note.

Mediterranean Gull - An adult.  A welcome addition to my year list.

Then a short drive to the west of Marlow to see the newly created flood relief scheme.  This is situated immediately to the north of Marlow Low Grounds, a site that does produce good birds from time to time.  Judging by the extensive shallow water available, I can imagine quite a few interesting waders being attracted to the site in the future!

Mainly Black-headed Gulls, plus a few Common Gulls on the closest group of gulls.
(Click on the images to enlarge)

Again mainly Black-headed Gulls, plus a few Common Gulls on a slightly more distant group of gulls

The furthest group of gulls contained quite a few large gulls, mainly Herring Gulls but also a handful of Lesser and Great Black-backed Gulls.

Colour Ringed Lesser BB Gull

The Yellow ring read "C+F" and was ringed in Gloucester on 30th June 2013.  It has been seen in Leicestershire many times since and also in Maidenhead in March 2016.

KIngfisher Video

I had just arrived at the lake by a backwater by the cottages.  A few Gadwall were on the water but the bird that caught my eye was a smart Kingfisher that was perched on some overhanging vegetation.  Reasonably close for a change but unfortunately the light conditions were not good.  It stayed there for a few minutes before departing.  It was the highlight of the afternoon.

A couple of still photos to start with.

A short video of the Kingfisher

Blackcap in the Garden

My first Blackcap in the garden this Winter was a female.  It joined a nice selection of garden birds including Great Spotted Woodpecker, Nuthatch, Siskin, Goldfinch, Greenfich and Long-tailed Tits.

Female Blackcap

Winter Thushes at Medmenham

A stroll along the bank of the Thames at Medmenham did not produce too many birds but there was a group of Thrushes that contained about 50 Fieldfares and 40 Redwings, all feeding on the flood meadow.

Fieldfare  - It was nice to get fairly close to this smart Thrush.

Redwing

Colour Ringed Black-headed Gull

A pretty good sized gull roost this evening with about 4000 Black-headed Gulls Present plus c300 Common Gull, 500 Herring Gulls.  Also fair numbers of Lesser and Great Black-backed Gull.  In the mass were two colour ringed Herring Gulls from the North Thames Ringing Group.  Also two colour ringed Black-headed Gulls.  See below.

This colour ringed bird was on the sand spit. Yellow 2J09"  It was ringed in March 2017 at Pitsea landfill by the North Thames Ringing Group.

Also present was "White 20P3".  Ringed in the UK.  Details awaited.

Otmoor Starling Murmeration

I had been planning a trip over to Otmoor RSPB to see the Starling murmeration for a few weeks.  Most recent days had poor weather or I had been busy, but when it came to 10th January, the weather looked calm and bright, so off we went.

Sue and I arrived at the first screen at about 3:30pm. There were already about six people present.  I asked if any birds of interest had been seen to get a few blank stares. However once I scanned across the reedbeds I soon saw a stunning male Hen Harrier.  A great result as I had missed this on my previous visit a week earlier.  I kept scanning the reed for Bitterns but with no luck but did see a couple of Marsh Harriers, a few Kestrels, a Buzzard, several Red Kites and lots of Lapwings, Golden Plovers and small hard to ID passerines.

Then the Starlings started to appear in the distance.  Lots of groups were homing in on the reserve.  A short time later I picked up a Merlin flying up to intercept a group of Starlings.  I am not sure if it got one but presumably plenty to choose from!

A distant lines of Starlings appear in the distance (click on image to enlarge)

Gathering over the reedbed

The murmeration then got underway with spectacular movements from perhaps 10-15 minutes before they started to drop like stones ito the reedbed.  All that was left was a black topping along the reed tops while a few latecomers continued to drop in.

An amazing sight and well worth a visit.  Please take a look at the short video above.

Little Missenden Hawfinch

I was unable to get over to Little Missenden until 8th when it turned out to be very cold and very dull, so not helping photography.  The birds were first reported here on Christmas Eve!!

As soon as I arrived I saw a small number perched high in trees behind the church but distant.  Then about 25 birds flew in from the NE and joined them. They then melted away and we (Graham Smith, John Edwrds and others) relocated about 8 that had flown into some tall bushes in a field to the west of the church.They fed for a while, had a drink in the Misbourne and flew off again.  We eventually found about 30 birds to the NW side of the village but they flew back over towards the church.  I eventually gave up trying to get close enough for decent photos but it was great to see them in the scope.

Hawfinch - A nice male but rather distant by the church.

Birding Otmoor

While my daughter Katherine was staying with us, we wanted a few hours birding somewhere not too far from home that would give a variety of birds.  We decided to go to Otmoor just to the east of Oxford, about 45 minutes drive.  Weather conditions were not ideal with strong winds but at least the rain held off and we did get a few sunny spells.

We did not get anything too exciting but did see quite a few birds.  Some of these are shown below.

Impressive numbers of Lapwing and Golden Plover were present. Many thousands of each.  Click on photo to enlarge.

More Lapwing and Golden Plover flushed by somethig unseen by us.

Marsh Harrier - A male quartering the reeds

Marsh Harrier - 3 separate individuals were seen.

Linnets - Feeding on seed near to the Wetland Viewpoint

Linnet - Nice to see them so close - About 150 were present.

Reed Bunting - about 75 were present also feeding on the seed.

 Also seen were Stonechats (about 6), Pintail (4-5), Snipe, Teal, Wigeon, Gadwall, Kestrel, Redwing, Fieldfare.

An enjoyable trip even if we did miss a few target species.