Tuesday 14 April 2015

A triple tick day....SEDGE WARBLER, NORTHERN WHEATEAR & COMMON SANDPIPER....

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

Sunday 12 April 2015

ARCTIC TERNS

Saturday saw a flock of 6 ARCTIC TERNS on Wilstone - the first of the year; trhe pair of GARGANEY were also still present, feeding with Teal off of the Drayton Bank trees. As I stood with Dave Hutchinson and Ted Reed, a wave of hirundines swept east, involving 76 Sand Martin, 2 House Martin and 8 Barn Swallow.

Work commitments kept me away all day Sunday but Dave, Steve & Ian had Common Sandpiper, 4 Common Terns, Yellow Wagtail and the GARGANEY pair, Ian finding 2 NORTHERN WHEATEAR on the Dry Canal manure pile late afternoon.

It's all ging RING OUZEL mad....

FRIDAY 10 APRIL........

Whilst on BLOWS DOWNS (DUNSTABLE) searching for RING OUZELS (Lol Carman had found 2 in the quarry there), I got a call to say that Mike Wallen had seen good numbers up at IVINGHOE BEACON. I made a speedy exit from Blows and made my way there, parking up by the tea wagon on the main Ivinghoe road. Almost as soon as I arrived, RING OUZELS were to be seen, with at least 6 mobile birds in the hawthorn scrub and field to the north of Gallows Hill, moving east as far as the transmitter fields as I tried to keep on them. I followed the central track back towards the main car park and saw another three (2 in scrub beneath the car park and 1 not far way near the 'Nightingale hedgerow'. Joan then phoned me to say that she and Anna had just found another flock on Steps Hill - all still present when I joined them some 15 minutes later. The flock numbered 9 birds (including 7 males) and were favouring the bottom fenceline and occasionally showed well. As I walked down the slope, what may have been 5 different birds was in Inkombe Hole, the morning thus producing perhaps 23 individuals. The only other migrant I had in all of this time was a single singing male WILLOW WARBLER in Top Scrub. I was away by 1115 hours...














I then headed down to TRING RESERVOIRS where STARTOP'S yielded my first COMMON TERN of the year, as well as a male YELLOW WAGTAIL. The Mute Swan flock had increased to 11 (mostly first-summers and most probably including the 6 displaced youngsters from Tringford), while both Common Redshanks were still present, Common Kingfisher, 28 Tufted Duck, single Pochard, the female Red-crested Pochard, a singing WILLOW WARBLER on the far side of the canal, both Common Chiffchaff and Blackcap and a singing male Reed Bunting.








On neighbouring MARSWORTH, the reedbed by the overflow held my first 2 WESTERN REED WARBLERS of the year, with CETTI'S WARBLER, Common Chiffchaff, Blackcap, Jay, 6 Tufted Duck and 2 Linnets noted.

Meanwhile WILSTONE proffered a single Lapwing, 2 Oystercatchers, 16 Shoveler, 4 Pochard, 18 Teal, 2 Common Redshank, 52 Black-headed Gulls, the 4 Egyptian Geese, 4 Common Buzzards, Grey Wagtail and Stock Dove. A pair of GARGANEY were seen very, very briefly in flight as they darted out of Hide Creek before (same as yesterday) both different to the drake I found yesterday off of the east shore.