Little Marlow Late Afternoon

 A walk around the lake, firstly checking on the sand spit before walking around the lake and checking the sand spit again for Gulls arriving just before dusk.

On my first visit to the sand spit there were the usual species to be expected including 20+ Teal, 3 Wigeon, 6 Shoveler, a Common Sandpiper, some Lapwing and several hundred Gulls, 95% of them being Black-headed Gulls.  I walked down to the meadow, checked the cattle for Yellow Wagtails (none found) and the second fence line towards Marlow, where a Stonechat remained from a few days earlier.

The walk around the lake was quite uneventful but there were two Common Sandpipers flying around to the south of the island and something had flushed all of the gulls and ducks, including the diving ducks!  Whatever caused it was unseen by me.  There was not much else to see until I got to swim 10 on the north bank when I heard a bird calling from low vegetation in the water.  It sounds familiar but I was not 100% as to ID but then a Cetti's Warbler flew out, landed briefly nearby before going into hiding again.  My first here this year but probably the same bird seen/heard recently near the NE corner of the lake.

Just a bit further on a flock of about 120 Tufted Duck had gathered and were still very alert following the earlier disturbance.  In among them was a hybrid Ferruginous Duck which Adam Bassett had found that morning.  The light was poor but the birds reasonably close, so I managed a few photos.

Then back around to the sand spit where a lot more Gull had arrived including over 120 large Gulls.  I managed to find an interesting Gull on the near sand spit which had a mantle colour slightly paler than a Lesser Black-backed Gull and larger in size.  A faint shawl of pale streaks on the nape.  It had to be a Caspian or Yellow-legged Gull and I felt that Caspian was the more likely.  Adam Bassett later agreed with this ID.

Hybrid Ferruginous Duck

Caspian Gull - A 3rd winter bird.

Caspian Gull - with Black-headed and Lesser Black-backed Gulls

Caspian Gull 

This Fox is a regular on the sand spit.  Hoping for an easy meal.

Roe Deer - Also regular here just before dusk.  A female with two of it's offspring

Reed Warbler - This photo was taken a few days earlier when it was sunny and very little wind.  Most Reed Warblers have already left the site for their migration.