The news broke of two Cattle Egrets at 7am on 21st July. Surprisingly found by Nick Marriner from Thame, who does not usually bird in this area. Many birders got to see the birds during the day but I was unable to get there until mid-afternoon. Fortunately they were still present when I arrived and I saw them move from the lake to the meadow and back again.
There are only two prior records for this species at Little Marlow GP. I was fortunate to see one in May 2014, so it has been a long wait for another. However this increasingly common species in the UK is likely to turn up here again before too much longer.
Two Cattle Egrets are in there somewhere! This meadow is only a hundred metres from the lake at Little Marlow.
One of the pair dropping into the meadow.
Hard to see in the tall grass.
Under the feet of a cow.
The pair moved to the sand spit on the lake at Little Marlow.
A bit distant for sharp photos.
A walk with my wife and our dog along the peaceful Thames at Medmenham was very pleasant. Not too many birds to photograph but I did find this Coots nest rather nice.
An early morning produced several interesting birds but I was fortunate to see a family party of Willow Warblers. I was too late to capture a classic shot of the adult feeding a juvenile on an open branch, so I had to make do with the photo below.
Nuthatches have bred in woodland close to my house for many years and they often visit our feeders, but they have never attempted to breed in the garden before. Our garden is a good size but not huge and the nest box is only 2-3 metres from a footpath and road that run alongside our house. The birds don't appear to be disturbed by our presence in the garden (and we have been gardening quite a bit during the Coronavirus lockdown).
It was interesting to see Blue Tits entering the nest box from time to time when the Nuthatches are presumably well out of the way. These have been seen removing nesting material!
I purchased the nest box many years ago (probably 20+) and it is rarely used. It is made of concrete so the Nuthatches should be safe inside.
Nuthatch bringing nesting material. This appears to be a Beech leaf.
I noticed that the birds always entered the box via the centre hole
However they always leave by the left hole!
They often peered out of the right hole but never entered or left by it.
A short video of the Nuthatches during nest building.
Having been birding in Buckinghamshire since the early 1970s my county list contains many scarce county birds but until today it did not include a Dipper! So when the news came through very early this morning that David Bevan had re-found the bird that had been seen briefly the day before, I was ready to go.
I arrived to find Dave Parmenter watching the bird as it sat on the waterfall at the Dyke, Wycombe Rye. It seemed fairly sluggish for a while but soon started to move round and feed. Other birders joined us over the next hour or so but the bird flew off about 10:30am and was not seen again. It was clearly a continental Black-bellied Dipper.
We picked a rather stormy period for a few days break in Swanage. Storm Dennis arrived Sunday morning and cut short outside activities by early afternoon but prior to that the weather was pretty decent for February!
Apart from the birds shown below I did manage to see two Black-necked Grebes, c20 Brent Geese, Guillemots and a Shag.
Red-breasted Mergansers - A rather confiding group that were feeding in the lee of Jerry's Point, Studland.
Rock Pipit - By the coastguard lookout at Peveril Point.
Herring Gulls - With a lack of other interesting species to photograph I took a few of some conveniently perched Herring Gulls.
