Monday 13 April
Another gorgeous day for mid April with
temperatures soaring to a high of 70 degrees fahrenheit with wall-to-wall
sunshine
Following information kindly supplied by Rob
Andrews (to the BBC website), I was up at first light and out at SHARDELOES LAKE
by 0700 hours. Rob had found a pair of EGYPTIAN GEESE on Sunday evening - the
first-ever record for the Amersham Recording Area. Both birds had presumably
roosted on the lake overnight and had relocated to the cricket field - showing
well and allowing me to obtain a large number of photographs. Well
pleased!
Although I failed to find RDA's pair of
Teal, the early morning rollcall included 4 Little Grebe, Great Crested Grebe, 4
Mute Swan (breeding pair and two of last year's offspring), 40 Canada Geese, 1
GREYLAG GOOSE, 6 Mallard, 9 Gadwall, pair of Pochard, 17 Tufted Duck, 22 Coot,
12 Moorhen, female Kestrel, 3 Red Kite, 4 Argenteus Herring Gulls (3
first-years & a second-year), pair of Lesser Black-backed Gulls, Stock Dove,
Common Kingfisher, Green Woodpecker, Grey Wagtail, 2 singing Chiffchaffs, Song
Thrush, Nuthatch and Jay; the Rookery now containing at least 23 occupied
nests.
Walking the DRY CANAL above WILSTONE
RESERVOIR, was very pleased to find the two NORTHERN WHEATEARS still present on
the manure heaps to the south, with 8 Skylark, Blackcap, Common Chiffchaff, male
Yellowhammer, 2 Goldfinch and 3 Red Kites noted.
Little change on WILSTONE with all 3
GARGANEY still present, 3 Pochard, 28 Black-headed Gull, 2 first-summer Common
Gull, a first-summer Herring Gull, 5 Teal and 8 Shoveler. The East Bank Wood
held singing Blackcap, Chiffchaff and Willow Warbler, with 22 Sand Martin and 8
Barn Swallow over.
Over at STARTOP'S END, a COMMON SANDPIPER, 2
Common Redshank and 4 COMMON TERN were on the bales, with 10 Mute Swans
(including 9 first-summers), 2 Greylag Geese, female Red-crested Pochard, Mistle
Thrush, Greenfinch and singing male Reed Bunting noted. A 'new' singing male
WILLOW WARBLER was in trees along the west bank in the NW corner.
In the Bucks reedbed section of MARSWORTH
RESERVOIR, a singing male SEDGE WARBLER was a 'year-tick', with Western Reed
Warbler there (plus the 2 by the overflow), Common Kingfisher, £ Common Terns
and 2 Jays; 15 Barn Swallows were overhead.
PITSTONE HILL was alive with the sound of
singing & displaying Skylarks and Meadow Pipits, as well as 2 jangling male
CORN BUNTINGS. A pair of COMMON STONECHAT was present too, along with Great
Spotted & Green Woodpecker, Linnet, Yellowhammer and this cracking male
GREENLAND WHEATEAR. A male RING OUZEL showed briefly on the south side of the hill but flew away chacking as it saw me.
In neighbouring INKOMBE HOLE, 3 male RING
OUZELS were commuting between there and the bottom fenceline of STEPS HILL, with
the only other migrants evident being Song Thrush and male
Blackcap.
On ALDBURY VILLAGE POND, most surprising
sight was of this pair of confiding MANDARIN DUCKS on the Village
Pond.......
Then, just after 2.15pm, Steve Blake phoned
to say that Ian Rose had found a 'Bluethroat' at AMWELL and warden Darren Bast
had photographed it!! This was a true mega for Hertfordshire, none of the 6
previous records being twitchable. My closest county rival Graham White had
fortuitously stumbled into the last one trapped & ringed at Rye Meads Sewage
Farm on 4 April 1983 so I had added impetus to try and see this one. Following
Steve's call I was off, arriving just over half an hour later at the watchpoint
overlooking GREAT HARDMEAD LAKE. Around 20 Amwell birders were already on site,
Mike Ilett & Barry Reed being two of those that had already connected.
Darren showed me his back of camera shots and there it was - a cracking male
WHITE-SPOTTED BLUETHROAT. Around 15 of those gathered had seen the bird fly a
few minutes prior to my arrival from the reedbed on the left to that on the
right and it was to be another 20 minutes before it was re-sighted - hugging the
edge of the reedbed. It soon became apparent that it was walking a circuit of
the fragmented reedbed, showing about once every 50 minutes on average. The
problem was the number of observers on the watchpoint trying to get a view -
numbering 65 at one point. I remained on site from 1500-1915 hours, eventually
obtaining a series of largely record shots (see below) as it hopped out for just
seconds at a time. By dusk, over 100 observers had connected.
It constituted the sixth county record and
the first since 1983 -:
1) A male White-spotted at Aldenham
Reservoir on 4 March 1942;
2) A male at Marsworth Reservoir on 23
September 1969;
3) A first-year female at Tewinbury on 12
September 1970;
4) A White-spotted found dead at Spellbrook,
Bishop's Stortford, on 29 April 1978;
5) A male trapped & ringed at Rye Meads
on 4 April 1983.
A pair of BLACK-NECKED GREBE in transitional
plumage were also seen from the watchpoint, as well as 6 Little Egret, Egyptian
Goose, 4 Gadwall, 2 Teal, 10 Shoveler, 2 Oystercatcher, 4 Redshank, 6 Lapwing, 2
Snipe, Common Sandpiper, 2 Common Tern, 2w YELLOW-LEGGED GULL, Water Rail,
Common Kingfisher, 32 Sand Martin, 8 Swallow, SEDGE WARBLER, 2 Cetti's Warbler
and Reed Bunting
