January Birding

My birding started with a detour to Marlow Ski Pit to see the four Red-crested Pochards that were found by Simon Hunt the previous day.  The birds were still present but rather distant as they were on the far side of the lake.  Still two smart males and two females was nice.

Red-crested Pochards - A rubbish photo but the best I could do given the distance or quite a long walk!

Then onto Little Marlow Gravel Pit mid afternoon. There was nothing unusual to be found and not even a Snipe on view.  So I settled for going through the gulls hoping for one of the scarcer species.  The roost was a decent size but  lacking very many Common Gulls, which are usually present in large numbers at this time of year.

Sadly no unusual gulls but I did mange to find three colour ringed Herring Gulls.

• Orange F4ZT - presumably a North Thames Ringing Group bird.
• Yellow Y.C45 - This was ringed at Harewood Whin landfill site, to the west of York on 31st May 2017.
• Blue JEE3 - A bird ringed in Tromso, Norway on 14th July 1999.  Also seen in the UK in three previous winters, all sightings in the south of England including Reading in 2006 and sightings at Little Marlow GP in September 2016 and November 2018.  See map below.

Herring Gull - Blue "JEE3"

The journey of Blue "JEE3"