Mainly Gulls! - at LMGP

A walk around the lake was reasonably productive with three Chiffchaffs, a GreyWagtail, three Snipe, a Water Rail and thousands of Gulls!!

This Water Rail was feeding in the stream to the east of the lake.

Mediterranean Gull
Seen on the east of the lake but digiscoped from the west side!

Mediterranean Gull 
Possibly the same bird as above but much later and asleep on the west side of the sand spit.

Gull roost on the sand spit.
Mainly mixture of Black-headed, Common, Herring and Lesser Black-backed Gulls

Possibly the biggest gull roost I have seen here with an estimated 5000 Common Gulls, 3000 Black-headed Gulls, 50 Herring Gulls and 50 Lesser-Black-backed Gulls.

As usual something spooked the gulls with an impressive result!  A huge flock on the water in the background of this photo did not move.  They extend well to the right of this photo.  Plus there are many more to the left and right foreground of this photo.

Pintail and Red-crested Pochard at LMGP

Pintail are and infrequent visitor to Little Marlow GP, so I took the opportunity to digiscope these two males and a female even though they were very distant.

These Red-crested Pochard were even further away than the Pintail.  Unfortunately it was asleep along with the Common Pochards.  Again another irregular species to the site but there has been a few more records in recent months.

A Goldeneye - At last !!

Goldeneyes used to be seen regularly at Little Marlow.  In the 1980s and 1990s they would often overwinter but these days they are an infrequent visitor, which does not tend to stay very long.  At other sites in the county, and elsewhere in the SE of England, they are common and seen in good numbers.  This is probably due to the shallower depth, as the lake gradually filled with silt from the gravel works over many years.  The depth may have affected the food available for this species.

Goldeneye - This female (or possibly an immature male) was first seen on the 16th and stayed into the following day.  This is the first Goldeneye I have seen at the lake since March 2014, although other people have reported them from time to time.

Hedgerley Tip

A hour or so viewing the Gulls at Hedgerley tip was entertaining even if it did not produced the hoped for Iceland or Glaucous Gull.  Black-headed Gulls formed the majority with 600 or so Herring Gulls and about 60 Greater Black-backed Gull.  Almost no Lessers or Common Gulls.  Lots of Red Kites though.

Unloading waste onto the tip

A wider view of the tip

Gull Mayhem!  A digiscoped photo.

Lesser Redpoll - One of about six that were feeding close to the footpath.

Bonaparte's Gull +

A bit of a slow start to 2016 regarding taking bird photos.  The weather and lack of me seeing any decent birds put paid to that.  I dipped on several nice birds at Little Marlow including Goldeneye, Goosander (both scarce birds there), Mediterranean Gull and Ring-necked Duck!

So when the Bonaparte's Gull was reported again at Wilstone Reservoir (Herts), I thought it would be worth giving that a go.  It had apparently be seen at about 8am but by the time I got there at about 10am,the bird had apparently flown off.  Another dip was looming!  However, as I walked to the area by the jetty, no sooner than I got there then someone had just relocated it.  It was fairly distant but did allow record shots to be taken and for the main ID features to be seen.

The Bonaparte's Gull is the one at the back with a Black-headed Gull towards the front.  Note the black bill and greyish "shawl" at the back of the neck.  When side by side the smaller size of the Bonaparte's was apparent.

The pinkish legs can just about be made out in this photo.

I then moved onto College Lake with Mike and Rose Collard, plus Rob Andrews.  Rob had seen a possible Shag there early morning but it had not been relocated.  It was also thought possible that the Bonaparte's Gull might drop in there as it was seen to head in that direction, from Wilstone, the previous evening.  There were a good mixture of wildfowl to be seen but nothing out of the ordinary and certainly no rare gulls. A group of about 10 Snipe were viewable from "Graham's Hide" as was a mixed group of Blue Tits, Great Tits, Reed Bunting and two Chiffchaff which were feeding on the grassy bank down from the hide.  It seemed a little odd to see two Chiffchaffs feeding in grass.  See photos below.

Chiffchaff close to the waters edge.

Chiffchaff venturing away from cover and feeding in the long grass.

Latest news - The Bonaparte's Gull was seen at College Lake at about 15:45, apparently being found by Dave Bilcock. Well done Dave.  A first for Buckinghamshire!

Little Marlow Birding and Tree Felling

A longer than usual walk around the lake turned up many more ducks than usual.  There had clearly been an influx of Tufted Ducks and Shoveler, while there were also good numbers of Pochard, Gadwall, Teal and Wigeon.  A few days previously there were well under 100 Tufted Ducks, while today there were at least 275.

A small portion of the Tufted Duck flock.

Interestingly there about 4000 Gulls with all but a handful being Common and Black-headed Gulls.  I would normally expect a decent number of Herring and Lesser Black-backed Gulls, but there were only about 10 in total while I was there.

A small portion of the Lapwings, Ducks and Gulls that were present.

I had a close look at the work to fell the line of Italian Black Poplar trees which stretched along the N side of the lake, between the lake and the public footpath.  Work is almost complete in felling and removing the main tree trunks but a huge amount of smaller branches and scrub has been pushed into long piles to rot.  So at present it does rather look as though a bomb has hit it!

My understanding is that work will start soon to replant with native species of trees.

The north bank of the lake.
The Poplars have been removed leaving only the much smaller trees

View along the "stream" from near the picnic table.

Branches piled in a long line along the permissive path.

View from the footbridge over the "stream" looking east.
Hard to believe this was recently woodland!

View from the footbridge over the "stream" looking west.  
The path running from this bridge to the public footpath currently runs through deep mud where the workmens vehicles have been passing. 

View from the NE corner where the "stream" divides.

Colour Ringed Black-headed Gull

A late afternoon visit to Little Marlow GP turned up a good variety of wildfowl but the only slight unusual visitor was a Shelduck which had been present for a couple of days.  As it was getting close to dusk I had a good look through the Gulls which were gradually building up in numbers.  There were good numbers of Black-headed, Common, Herring and Lesser Black-backed Gulls, plus three adult Great Black-backed Gulls.  In among the flock were two white colour ringed birds.  One was muddy and unreadable, while the other had the letters "AJ66", which appears to have been ringed in Germany.  Details are awaited.

Black-headed Gull "White AJ66"