Glaucous Gull at LMGP

A mid afternoon walk to the lake to check if the brisk E wind had brought anything in.  It was bitterly cold!!  I bumped into Kevin Holt in the car park and we walked to the watching area by the bench.  There were perhaps 1500 Gulls present and numbers were gradually building up as the afternoon progressed.  After a few minutes I cam across a large pale Gull well out on the sand spit.  It's pink bill with a black tip and white primaries gave it away as a Glaucous Gull.  This is a scarce bird at this site although there has been one record so far this year.
I put the word out and a few other birders appeared in due course.

Both the Glaucous and a Greater Black-backed Gull
looked around when a Cormorant appeared..

Also present among the c750 flock of Black-headed Gulls was this colour ringed individual "Yellow 2KRC".  It was ringed by the North Thames Ringing Group at Pitsea Landfill Site 21st March 2015 as a 3rd calendar year bird. It was also seen at LMGP in January by Adam Bassett.  There are no other sightings.  The history of this bird can be seen here. 

Garden Birds

I decided to try photography a few of the common garden birds using my camera Panasonic G6 with standard lens on a tripod and controlled remotely by the cameras built in wi-fi.  The set-up was easy to use and the results good.  Thanks to Neil Fletcher for showing me how to use the remote functionality on my camera!

Blue Tit - One of the most common of our garden birds.
Looking extremely smart at this time of year.

Long-tailed Tit - They seem to love the suet blocks and
have been very regular visitors over recent weeks, usually in small flocks.

Coal Tit - Slightly more infrequent than the other two and usually solitary.

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!