Colour Ringed Black-headed Gulls

Four colour ringed Black-headed Gulls at Little Marlow GP in five days is not bad.

First of all was "White EA4F" on 19th November.

"White EA4F" was ringed as a nestling on 31st May 2014 at Griend, Holland.  It was first seen at Little Marlow GP in February 2016.  It reappeared in October and November 2016 and after that not again until this week.

White EA4F movement

Then on 22nd was "Yellow 2PJH" and "Yellow EMJN".   

"Yellow 2PJH" is a bird ringed by the North Thames Ringing Group, so a relatively local bird.  It was ringed in March 2016 as an adult at Pitsea Landfill and subsequently seen at Little Marlow several times between Nov 2016 and Feb 2017.

"Yellow EMJN" was ringed in Zoutleeuw, Belgium, about 420Km distance, on 2nd June 2017 in the nest.  More information on the Belgium ringing scheme can be found on this link.

Recoveries of all Black-headed Gulls ringed at Zoutleeuw, Belgium.  The Little Marlow marker is the most northerly

Finally on 23rd was "Yellow 2KRC" 

"Yellow 2KRC" was ringed by the North Thames Ringing Group at Pitsea Landfill Site 21st March 2015 as an adult.  It was first seen at Little Marlow in January 2016 and also in February and March.  It was then not seen until the following winter when it was seen mant times bewteen November and February 2017.  So a similar pattern again with it being seen this winter once again. 

"Yellow 2KRC" is a Little Marlow Regular. . 

Pitsea Landfill to Little Marlow.  Updates to this can be seen at this link. 

Snow Bunting and Hawfinches

Snow Buntings and Hawfinches are bit of a strange mix but with a single Snow Bunting not too far away at Wilstone Reservoir (Herts) and Hawfinches still at Great Hampden, I decided to try and take both in during one session.

First stop was Wilstone Reservoir, parked the car, walked up the steps, walked 30 metres along the bank and there it was feeding on the concrete side of the reservoir.  Amazingly close with the bird almost vertically below me for a time, at the base of the steep concrete sides to the reservoir.  A steady stream of admirers stopped by to view or take photos.  One some of mine I had to use the 300mm telephoto lens at less than full zoom to fit the bird in!

The bird was constantly moving around feeding on very small items.  According to the discussion on Twitter, this individual originates from Iceland.

A short video of the Snow Bunting feeding actively beneath me.

Then onto Great Hampden where good numbers of Hawfinches had been present since 1st November.  I approached the site from the Hampden Hall end. On walking past the church and Turret House I saw 3 Hawfinches land in some tall trees next to the house. I carried on across the path that cuts across the oilseed Rape field and spent about an hour and a half in that area. There were 25 approx seen to fly into the copse in the centre of the field. They arrived in small groups and flew out in one group, so I managed to count reasonably accurately. The birds were again feeding in the seeding Hornbeam in the South side of the copse. It is hard to get close to these birds and the light is not great as the tree is to the South of the footpath. However I did manage to get good scoped views of several birds that were feeding on the outer edges of some of the branches. I also managed to record photos of these. On walking back past the church there were several more Hawfinches moving around and at least one was feeding on Yew berries in an obvious berry laden tree. So I suspect that these were different to the birds to the ones in the copse. So the total count could well have been about 30. 

The photos below were all taken at a distance and in fairly poor light, so not the greatest of quality!

Reaching down to take a Hornbeam seed.

Seventeen Hawfinches in this photo.

Purple Sandpipers +

A seawatch of a couple of hours did not produce anything except Gannets, Kittiwakes, 5 Common Scoter and the usual common species.  Rater strangely the Guillemots were still perched on the nesting cliffs and there was a steady flow of birds flying past the Bill.

Only one Purple Sandpiper was on view today and I managed a couple of short videos.  These are delightful birds which are easily overlooked.  They are not normally found on the typical wader habitat but on rocky headlands such as that at Portland Bill.  It is nice to watch them as they defy the incoming waves.

After leaving the Bill I stopped briefly at Ferrybridge where there were distant Dunlin, Ringed Plover and about 5 Red-breasted Mergansers.  Then onto Radipole Lake for another brief visit.  I counted 57 Mediterranean Gulls from the RSPB information centre but was told that they often get many more.

Mediterranean Gull - An adult in the car park at Radipole Lake.

Portland Bill

Always a great place to go birding even if the winds are all wrong!  A bitterly cold wind was keeping most seabirds well out at sea but the sun made it pleasant out of the wind.  All I could manage in a brief seawatch was 50+ Auks, mainly Guillimots but a few Razorbills also in there I think.  A Great Northern Diver, a few Gannets and a small flock of Scoter was all I got seawatching before the carvery at the Pulpit Inn called.
Away from seawatching, the hoped for Purple Sandpipers that winter at the Bill were present, although only two at present.

One of two Purple Sandpipers doing there best to blend in with the rocks.

Constantly pecking away at some unseen food items.

What are you looking at!

Rock Pipit feeding a short way from the rocks.

One of two Ravens feeding on the grassy slope in front of the coastguard cottages

Note the bulging crop.

A fearsome bill and small eye gives it an "evil" look!

Lodmoor Country Park

The first full day of a few days in Weymouth turned out to be a bit damp.  Some light rain in the morning gave way to dryer periods but it did not stop me walking along the front to Lodmoor RSPB reserve.  A good variety of ducks and waders were present along with one or two Marsh Harriers hunting over the reedbeds.

One of the birds I was hoping to see was the Lesser Yellowlegs that had been present since 5th October.  However there was no sign to this American vagrant on any of the shallow pools on the south and western sides of the reserve when I arrived.  There were however 25+ Snipe, 20+ Black-tailed Godwits, 20+ Dunlin,  2 Ruff, Lapwings and a Redshank. Wildfowl included Shelduck, Gadwall, Wigeon, Shoveler and Teal.  Water Rails and Cetti's Warblers could be heard in several areas.  Several species of Gulls were present, most notably 7 Mediterranean Gulls.

One of 7 adult Mediterranean Gulls present. 

One of the Black-tailed Godwits, most of which were asleep.

A rather smart Lapwing

This Kingfisher was conveniently perched close to the pathway.

Ruff - One of two present.

Two of the Dunlin feeding alog the waters edge.

A size comparison between a Dunlin and two Black-tailed Godwits.

A very confiding Robin was just asking for it's photo to be taken!

The rest of the photos are of the star bird, a Lesser Yellowlegs.

The bird was originally out of view in one of the middle pools but was eventually
flushed by a Marsh Harrier and landed fairly close to the footpath.

I have seen quite a few Lesser Yellowlegs on the far side of the Atlantic
but this was only the second I have seen in the UK,  

Showing it's white rump.

Hawfinch Invasion

October and November will go down in history as being the largest invasion of Hawfinches ever recorded in the UK.  The birds are thought to have originated from central Europe where their food supply of Hornbeam and other seeds have failed.

I had recently been to Steps Hill (24th October) and was fortunate to see 8 Hawfinches fly over.  This was however small beer compared to the 90+ seen on one or two days.  So with my daughter Katherine visiting for half term, we both decided to try and get to Steps Hill close to dawn.  We actually arrived at 6:45am and found Dick Seekins in position but he had drawn a blank up until then.  We stayed with Dick for some time and eventually heard one fly overhead but come not see it.  We also had one or two Brambling in flight.  Dick left and we were joined by Francis Buckle but we did not manage any further sightings in what was a fairly foggy morning.

Katherine and I moved on to College Lake for an hour or so and picked up most of the common ducks including Shoveler, Wigeon, Teal, Gadwall, Pochard, Tufted Duck, etc.  Overhead we had a few Redpoll and in the distance a Linnet and Yellowhammer.  We eventually decided to try for Hawfinch again but this time at Great Hampden where Warren Claydon had seen 24 feeding the previous day.

It was about a 20 minute drive to Great Hampden and we walked past the impressive "Great Hampden House" and into a Kale field where a footpath conveniently crossed it.  A few small group had been left in the field and it was in one of these that Warren had seen the birds the day before.  Before we had got the the first group (a copse of mainly Oak) Katherine caught sight of one or two Hawfinches feeding in a group of trees that was further away and one landed on a tall tree in the copse in front of us.  We eventually moved through the copse to emerge on the footpath on the far side and got good scope views of the Hornbeam where the birds were feeding.  We scanned the whole tree and counted about 7.  Then a group of 16 birds flew across our field of view, followed a short while on a group of 6 and then 11.  Then the original 7 birds flew out of the tree but there were in fact 9, making a total  42 Hawfinches.

A amazing result and many thanks to Warren for putting out details on where the birds were feeding the previous day.  Later that afternoon John Edwards and Graham Smith managed to see 36 in the same area.

Hard to see Hawfinch as it was feeding on the Hornbeam tree.

Tis Hawfinch fly out from the Hornbeam and perched in full view for a while but rather distantly.

The grid ref for this site is SP843025.  Good luck if you try in the next few days.

Dartford Warblers!

After Dave Cleal and Adam Bassett had combined to discover two Dartford Warblers at Stoke Common two days ago, I was fairly keen to see them in case their stay was a short one.  My daughter Katherine, who is staying with us over half term, was also keen to see one, as they don't occur in her current county of residence (Lancashire).  So off we went to Stoke Common with two grandchildren in tow.  Not the best combination for finding a skulking bird!

Several birders had tried to find them and found it difficult, but having been given directions on the last known locations from Dave Ferguson and Graham Smith we were soon in the right area in roughly the middle of the common.  I had heard from Adam that they were associating with two Stonechats, so when we located the Stonechats we started to scan for the Dartfords. We were fortunate to hear a call from a Dartford and a couple of notes of song. A while later we caught a glimpse of a male Dartford as is flew low over some thick vegetation in order to keep up with a Stonechat.  Then almost immediately we saw another bird which turned out to be a female.  This bird stayed fairly close for some time but was in thick vegetation and almost impossible to see let alone photograph. I eventually managed record shots of both birds.

We eventually gave up as the youngest member of or group was getting impatient and moved to the western end of the common to where what was potentially a third bird had been heard.  We were very fortunate in that we saw a Dartford in flight crossing the path we were on.  It perched some distance away allowing me to digiscope it.  It seems to a be a juvenile bird.  That of course raises the question of possible breeding here.  However it is late in the season and it is my belief that this bird was probably raised elsewhere and came here as part of normal post-breeding dispersal.

We can only hope they stay here for the long term as it was 2003 that they were last known to have bred here.

A very distant view of one of the Stonechats.  These were surprisingly elusive.

Dartford Warbler - male.  Well Hidden!

Female

Female leaving the same bush as above and showing proximity to a Stonechat.

Dartford Warbler - Female

Probable juvenile.