MONDAY 26 OCTOBER
Whenever the clocks go back, I always sense a feeling of sadness and cannot help feeling that the autumn migration is nearly over. I harp back to the sounds and sights of late summer and think back to my last Common Swifts in my village at the end of August - another year is once again coming towards a close.
Today, it really did still feel like summer. It was surprisingly warm (with temperatures reaching 16 degrees C by midday) with clear, calm and sunny conditions and a fresh southerly wind.
There was no sign of the Osprey in the Chess Valley this morning so I moved south to explore a 'new' site for me - 'Hogback Wood' between Forty Green and Beaconsfield.
A41 Trunk Road
A dead POLECAT-type on the westbound A41 near Buckler's Lane at TL 053 036
WILSTONE RESERVOIR, TRING
(1600 hours until dark; with BBC correspondent filming forthcoming documentary)
Little change in water level. The gulls failed to roost but did gather prior to flying off NE towards Leighton Buzzard.
Great Crested Grebe (17)
Little Grebes (8 now present - the original 5 and an additional flock of 3)
ATLANTIC GREAT CORMORANT (a ringed adult from Aberdeenshire roosting on the central bund)
Cormorants (43 roosting at dusk)
LITTLE EGRET (1 present in Cemetery Corner which flew off strongly NW to roost at 1657 hours)
Mute Swans (25 including 7 first-winters)
Gadwall (13)
Eurasian Wigeon (258)
Common Teal (127)
Shoveler (109)
Tufted Duck (83)
NORTHERN PINTAIL (a fine adult drake now moulted fully out of eclipse)
Northern Pochard (80+)
*GREATER SCAUP (juvenile still showing well, diving for food close to the eastern bank)
Coot (338)
Lapwing (298)
EUROPEAN GOLDEN PLOVER (147 roosting on the central bund)
GREEN SANDPIPER (1 in the SW quadrant)
COMMON SNIPE (7)
DUNLIN (one mingling with the Golden Plovers on the bund)
Black-headed Gull (731 pre-roost)
COMMON GULL (2 adults)
Argenteus HERRING GULL (1 adult)
Lesser Black-backed Gulls (7)
Grey Wagtail (2)
Common Starling (7)
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