Black Restart at Hare Hatch Lane

Hare Hatch Lane is an excellent migration site for small passerines and regularly picks up Wheatears, Whinchats and Redstarts.  Local birder Matt Milne photographed a Redstart which was identified as a Black redstart, a scarce species in the county.  There is perhaps one record a year of this species.

I visited the site late afternoon when other birders had left the site.  It took a while to find the bird but it eventually turned up where previously seen.  I watched it for about 20 minutes as it fed.

Black Redstart - a juvenile bird.

Two Wheatears were also present in one of the paddocks.

Common Restart at Wapseys

 This was a visit in search of a Wryneck that had been found the previous evening.  Unfortunately the Wryneck could not be found but there were a lot of passerines in the scrub on the top of the hill.  Here a Common Redstart was found by Tony James.  This is not a common migratory species at this site.

The Redstart sat perched here for some time preening.

Nice tail!

Gadwall Breeding at Little Marlow

 

A female Gadwall with a well grown youngster. 
There was originally a sizeable brood but gradually they were predated leaving just this one.

Long-eared Owl

 This individual was discovered in South Bucks by a local birder.  Due to the private nature of the site and the attention that the bird would get, it's whereabouts were not widely shared.  I managed to get to the site in the afternoon and fortunately found the bird close to where it had originally been seen.  It was flushed by a dog walker and it flew around a fairly open field before disappearing.

It was thought to be a juvenile from a nest on a nearby farm.  Another observer saw the bird grappling with a Kestrel which had a nest nearby.  Both were believed to be unhurt.

The bird could not be found the following day.

Long-eared Owl - I managed to get a few photo as it circled around the field.

Very bowed wings when flying away.

Little Terns at Little Marlow

 I decided to visit Little Marlow GP on a dull drizzly Sunday morning, partly to check on the Common Tern Chicks.  On arriving on the viewpoint at the Point I soon found a pair of Little Terns, a scarce bird in the county.  I watched for an hour or two and they flew to the east side of the lake to fish but kept returning to the sand spit to rest.  I put the news out early on and a dozen or more local birders turned up to see these smart adults.  They are presumably failed breeders.

Little Terns - A pair alongside a Common Tern

Common Sandpipers - Three perched on a branch after being flushed with a Black-headed Gull alongside.  There were seven Common Sandpipers present no doubt heading south.

Common Tern Ringing

 After last years Bird Flu when several Terns died and none were ringed, this year there was a smaller colony but all seemed healthy.  There were about 18 adults Terns present and 11 chicks on two rafts.  Two of these were too small to ring but the other nine were ringed with a BTO ring and a green colour ring.  All were marked with characters in the series "Fnn" where "n" is a number.  The series starts with "F01".

Swan Support assisted by providing an inflatable boat with outboard and did the steering.

BTO ring being fitted by a licenced member of the Hughenden Ringing Group

Chick fitted with BTO and Green colour ring. 
The colour rings were funded by the Buckinghamshire Bird Club

About ten days later the first chicks had left the rafts.

St Mary's Island - Grey Seals

 A family visit to Northumberland gave the opportunity to visit St Mary's Island to see the Grey Seals and a few birds.

Grey Seals - Perhaps 50 were present on the rocks.

Cormorants - Perched on a distinctive rock.

Grey Partridge - Seen next to the car park for St Mary's Island.
The first I have seen for a year or two!

Eider and Herring Gull  - Several male Eiders were seen in the area.

Kittiwake breeding site at Tynemouth