Wednesday, 30 September 2015

COMMON STONECHAT passage begins in earnest...









This flock of 5 COMMON STONECHAT was present at Pitstone Hill yesterday, as autumn passage of this species in the area began in earnest. A group of 3 RUFF were seen at Wilstone (Dave Bilcock), while 2 EURASIAN BITTERNS roosted at Marsworth Reservoir on Monday (Steve Rodwell). The juvenile OSPREY remains at Weston Turville



Monday, 21 September 2015

OSPREY having a ball........

Couldn't resist spending all morning with the juvenile OSPREY at Weston Turville Reservoir today. It first appeared at about 0800 hours when it caught a small Roach and flew to a tree at the back of the wood to eat it. It then got disturbed by a working farmer about 90 minutes later and relocated to a Birch opposite the Susan Cowdy hide. It found this new perch to its liking and spent the rest of the morning there, although failed unsuccessfully, probably due to the rain and murky conditions, to catch any more fish, despite a lot of effort. Dave Hutchinson joined me for a while but generally I was surprised at the lack of interest - after all, it's mightily rare you get a chance to see an Osprey so reliable as this one. Anyway, I took a massive 552 images of it, those below being the better......