Marlow Low Grounds

A short visit to Marlow Low Grounds and to see if anything new had dropped onto the new flood relief scheme.

A view of the new Marlow Flood Relief Scheme.  It certainly looks good for waders!

I was greeted by a Little Egret and Grey Heron on the marsh pool.  Then a scan around the flood relief pools turned up the yellow Wagtail pictured, as well as a Common Sandpiper, a pair of Little Ringed Plover and several pairs of Lapwing apparently breeding.

Yellow Wagtail on the new flood relief scheme

Walking back I saw a rather nice family party of Tree Creepers along Lower Pound Lane but they were on the move the whole times so no photos.

Gallows Bridge and Quainton Hills

I joined in with the Bucks Bird Club trip to Gallows Bridge Farm (BBOWT reserve) and Quainton Hills.  We did not see lots of species but did see some nice birds.

Gallows Bridge produced 3 Whimbrel which had been present the previous day.  In the area were 3/4 Curlew which were flying around with the Whimbrel at one point.  Warblers were thin on the ground but we did see a Raven, Meadow Pipit, Oystercatcher, Reed Buntings etc.

One (and a bit) Whimbrels at Gallows Bridge Farm.

Then at Quainton Hills a small group of us were led by Laurie Bryant to where a female Ring Ouzel had been hanging around for a few days.  After about 20 minutes to flew into view but did not keep still and soon went back into cover.  WE also saw the stunning male Wheatear below.

Male Wheatear.

Three Avocets Drop In

A message at 7:30am from Adam Bassett alerted me to the presence of three Avocets on the sand spit at Little Marlow GP.  So I got my birding gear together and headed off.  I only had a short time due to a prior commitment, so no time to waste.

When I arrived Adam was just leaving to head off to work.  I important news was that the Avocets were still present.  I moved down to the point on the west side of the lake and sure enough there were three Avocets on the far side of the sand spit.  Over the next 15 minutes the birds moved around a lot.  Two of them stayed close together and at one point one of this pair flew over to the single bird and was aggressive towards it.  So I  am assuming a pair and a single male.

Two Shelducks and two Oystercatchers were present but nothing else out of the ordinary.

Rather distant in this photo.  Not easy to get all three in one photo.

Common Scoter at Little Marlow

A message from Adam Bassett to say that he had just seen two Common Scoter fly into the lake at Little Marlow was perhaps not too surprising considering the amount of overland movement going on in drizzly conditions.  I arrived about an hour later and the birds were in the middle of the lake.  What with some drizzle and the distance it was hard to get any decent photos!

I did not even attempt to get a photo of the lone Arctic Tern that was present!  Plus the singing Sedge Warbler was all but invisible!

Adder

I was at Stoke Common recently when I came across this dead Adder in an area of Gorse and Heather.  There were no obvious signs of what killed it but it may well be due to the recent cold snap.

I contacted the rangers at Burnham Beeches and they collected it.  Some of the individuals can be recognised by their markings but I don't have any feedback on this yet,

Colour Ringed Lesser Black-backed Gull

A visit to Little Marlow late afternoon on 20th March produced only a few hundred gulls, mainly Black-headed Gulls but also some Common Gulls and smaller numbers of Herring, Lesser and Greater Black-backed Gulls.  However a single adult Mediterranean Gull that was perhaps the highlight.  On closer inspection of the Gulls I came across a colour-ringed Lesser Black-Backed Gull with the ring Blue "LRA.V" on it's left leg.  It seems that this bird is almost 14 years old and although raised in Suffolk, it seems to like it across the channel in Belguim.

Both of the photos below were "phone-scoped" hence the poor quality.

Lesser-Black-Backed Gull Blue "LRAV" arrived early for the gull roost.

Mediterranean Gull only stayed a short time.

An Icey Blast at Dorney Lake

I was due to lead the Bucks Bird Club field meeting at Dorney Lake but due to the weather warnings for snow I did indicate that I might not be able to make it.  However the snow was not as bad as I had feared, so I set off from home about 8:45am.  The hill on Blind Lane was not as bad on the steep bends as at the top, so it did not prove to be a problem.

I arrived in the car park at Dorney Lake at about 9:10am and started to don several layers of warm weather clothes.  A layer of snow covered the site and the tarmac/concrete areas were covered in melted snow that had re-frozen and was extremely slippery.  Not surprisingly no-one else turned up so I decided to have a walk on my own.

Before I left the car I was approached by a dog walker who said he had seen a long legged bird with a long bill, walking around the car park.  No sooner had he said that then he pointed to the hedge and there was a Whimbrel sheltering from the bitter easterly wind.  It had some snow caked around it's legs but seemed reasonably alert.  It walked away a bit when someone approached the car park ticket machine!

Wide view of the Whimbrel sheltering under the hedge near the car park.

A phone scoped image of the Whimbrel.

Whimbrel as taken with my digiscoping camera.  Note the snow around the legs.

After a while I decided to walk along the causeway to the 1250 metre point so I could view the seasonal pool.  Along the way I saw a single Grey Wagtail and a good number of Meadow Pipits. Despite scanning the far bank of the return lake I could not see any other birds of note.

Having got to the 1250 point I soon started picking up some passage birds.  Firstly five Dunlin were feeding in a loose group.  Nearby was a single Little Ringed Plover and near to that an Oystercatcher and a Lapwing.  The Little Ringed Plover is certainly quite early but preceded on 15th and 17th by birds elsewhere in the county.

Little Ringed Plover - My first of the year.

Dunlin - Three of the 5 present.

Also seen were 100 Wigeon, about 20 Teal, a selection of Gulls and Corvids;  Two Canada Geese and one Egyptian Goose.

Having returned to the car park I had a good look around for the Whimbrel but could not locate it.  I assumed it had flown off perhaps having being flushed by dog walkers, of which there were quite a few.  However it was apparently seen by another birder, feeding on the tarmac in the car park at 2pm!

Song Thrush by the car park.