28-29 AUGUST

The images above (all taken by Dave Bilcock) show the continuing chats present just below the Beacon car park at Ivinghoe Hills NR.

From top to bottom - Northern Wheatear and Whinchat together on wires; the juvenile male Common Stonechat; male Northern Wheatear and Whinchats

Today's (Thursday 28 August) highlight was 7 RINGED PLOVERS and the continuing juvenile DUNLIN present on Wilstone Reservoir early morning (Dave Bilcock). Otherwise, 28-29 August has been fairly static with GARGANEY remaining the highlight.

Two adult SANDWICH TERNS flew in to Wilstone Reservoir at 0630 hours on Friday 29 August and remained for 15 minutes before flying off west with a Common Tern towards Broughton. Five minutes later they returned but after a further five minutes, they again flew off at 0655 (RH, DB & SW only).

DUNLIN fresh in but otherwise more 'chats'

Wednesday 27 August
(Another warm day, with fresh SSW winds, overcast skies and dry conditions)

Undoubted highlight was a juvenile DUNLIN that joined the 2 adult Ringed Plovers on the island all day, as well as a healthy count of juvenile CORN BUNTINGS and more passage WHINCHATS.

WILSTONE RESERVOIR
(1430 intermittently to 1800 hours; with SR, FB, SW & DB in part)

Grey Herons - 13 feeding in the shallows
Mute Swan - 78 present
WHOOPER SWANS - adult pair still
Canada Geese - 94 early evening
Common Teal - 27
Shoveler - 64
Red-legged Partridge - pair still present in field behind new overflow
*Coot - 610 click-counted today indicating sharp decrease in numbers
RINGED PLOVER - 2 adults remain on islands
*DUNLIN - juvenile present all day, feeding on small muddy islet (DB, SW, MW, SR, FB, LGRE, et al)
COMMON GREENSHANK - 3 juveniles remain present
COMMON SANDPIPER - 2 juveniles still
HERRING GULL - 1 juvenile on spit

Common Buzzard
HOBBY - juvenile still present
COMMON SWIFT - 1 (MW, SR)
SAND MARTIN - 23
House Martins - 63 still
Barn Swallows - 15+
NORTHERN WHEATEAR - juvenile present in 'Meadow Fields' (SR, FB)

IVINGHOE HILLS NR

Steve Rodwell recorded the continuing juvenile male COMMON STONECHAT and 3 WHINCHATS earlier in the day but I saw none of these this evening - the field had been completely harvested.

PITSTONE HILL (all birds congregating in stubble by fence at cSP 953 146)

**CORN BUNTINGS - 16 present in flock including 7 very freshly plumaged juveniles (resembling Bobolinks or Yellow-breasted Buntings!!)

YELLOWHAMMER - 9
Meadow Pipit - 14
Common Skylark - 25
NORTHERN WHEATEAR - 3
*WHINCHAT - 2 along fence (SR, LGRE)

Satellite-tracked OSPREY

Osprey 'Beatrice', trapped and satellite-tagged in Morayshire (Roy Dennis)

Beatrice's Details: Is a neighbour of Logie (another satellite-tracked Osprey); she is the breeding female at nest B16 near Forres in Moray and is colour ringed green 5B. This year, she was first seen at Logie's nest on 1st April 2008, with a young male osprey 'red 7J', but quickly moved back to her own nest, when her mate returned from Africa.

Green 5B was ringed as a chick in Strathdon, Aberdeenshire on 8th July 2000 by Ian Francis and Stuart Rae. She was one of three chicks. She arrived at nest B16 in 2003 but by the time a new mate settled in, it was too late to breed. She reared one chick in 2004, and two chicks each year 2005-2007, and has another two young this year. Her mate has been the same bird - which I ringed 'ochre TK' on Forestry Commission land near Elgin in 1998.

We caught the female osprey in the evening 9th July using a decoy and a dho gaza net. She was in very good condition weighing 1862 grams: her wing length was 546mm and tail 235mm. Her ring number was BTO 127049. We fitted a GPS satellite transmitter and then released her; she flew straight to her favourite perch, a tall larch tree next to her nest.

On 18 August 2008, whilst on return migration to Africa, 'Beatrice' flew SE at 48 km/hr over the Chiltern escarpment between Dagnall and Ivinghoe Beacon at 1100 hours.

See http://roydennis.org/Beatrice.htm for the entire return migration of this adult female Osprey

Recent Images from Wilstone - Dave Bilcock

Top - the latest view of Wilstone Reservoir revealing just how much mud is now showing

Bottom 4

This adult tern was present with 6 adult Common Terns on one of the islands on Monday 25th. It was extremely unusually plumaged but was in active wing moult. It was very whitish-grey on the mantle like Roseate Tern, and had moulted to white its forehead feathers. The bill had a reddish base, some black and a yellow tip. It was presumably a Common Tern.

Ivinghoe Hills Nature Reserve 24-26 August

Juvenile Northern Wheatear, Ivinghoe Hills NR, 25 August
Juvenile Whinchat, Ivinghoe Hills NR, 25 August
Adult male Common Redstart, Ivinghoe Hills NR, 25 August

All above images taken by Dave Bilcock



SUNDAY 24 AUGUST

Two very vocal COMMON RAVENS flew over the car park then along the ridge towards Aldbury Nowers at 1625 hours (LGRE)

MONDAY 25 AUGUST

A small fall involving 4 juvenile WHINCHATS, 3 NORTHERN WHEATEARS and a juvenile male COMMON STONECHAT on the fenceline and unharvested cornfield just below the main Beacon car park (DB, SW, LGRE, FB, JT & SR).

Also 5 Linnets, several Meadow Pipits and 2 MARSH TITS in vicinity

TUESDAY 26 AUGUST

At least 3 juvenile WHINCHATS, the juvenile male COMMON STONECHAT, 3 juvenile NORTHERN WHEATEARS and 2 COMMON REDSTARTS all remain at Ivinghoe Hills NR today, as well as a charm of at least 43 Goldfinches (SR/LGRE)

TUESDAY 26 AUGUST

Adult Little Egret, Wilstone Reservoir, Tring, 26th August 2008 (Francis Buckle)

Two juvenile Common Greenshanks, Wilstone Reservoir, Tring, 26th August 2008 (Francis Buckle)

Tuesday 26 August
(Fresh SW winds, fairly warm and cloudy)

HIGHLIGHTS - juvenile ARCTIC TERN briefly prior to 0700 hours (DB), continuing GARGANEY and COMMON GREENSHANKS and large increase in Northern Shoveler numbers. Two RINGED PLOVERS new in and successful breeding by GREAT CRESTED GREBE on Marsworth

WILSTONE RESERVOIR (1500-1600; with Steve Rodwell)

Mute Swans - 78 present
WHOOPER SWAN - 2 adults remain present
Greylag Goose - 1
LITTLE EGRET - adult still present
Common Teal - 45
*GARGANEY still present, now right of hide amongst Teal
NORTHERN SHOVELER - large increase to 63 birds
Northern Pochard - 17 still
Lapwing - 196 on bund
RINGED PLOVERS - 2 adults on 'new islands' (MC, SW, SR, LGRE)
COMMON GREENSHANK - 4 juveniles still present
COMMON SANDPIPER - 2 juveniles remain

Common Buzzards - 3
HOBBY - 3+
COMMON SWIFT - 1 (SR)
House Martins - 56+

STARTOPSEND RESERVOIR

Mute Swans - pair present with two dark cygnets
Barn Swallows - 25
Pied Wagtails - 13
*YELLOW WAGTAILS - 3 juveniles present on East Bank and showing well

MARSWORTH RESERVOIR

The female Red-crested Pochard still present with Mallards
*GREAT CRESTED GREBE - 4 present including an adult carrying one very small, stripy young bird on its back - late fledging.

19-25 AUGUST

All records relate to Wilstone Reservoir unless otherwise stated

Great Crested Grebe - 17 on Wilstone throughout
Little Grebe - up to 10 on Wilstone, mainly juveniles
Sinensis Cormorant - up to 41 roosting
Grey Heron - up to 12
*LITTLE EGRET - single adult present from 19-26, favouring muddy bay to right of Daryton Bank Hide
Mute Swan - 73 on 22nd with an overnight increase to 80 on 23rd; 78 on 24th, with 75 on 25th
Whooper Swans - the adult pair which oversummered at Dunstable Sewage Farm arrived overnight on 23rd and remained until at least 26th (SR, LGRE, et al).
Greylag Goose - 1 remains on Wilstone
Canada Goose - 257 in College Lake on 25th (Ben Miller)
Barnacle Goose - bird of unknown origin present on 19th
Gadwall - 29 present throughout
Northern Shoveler - gradual increase from 21 on 18th to 33 on 25th
Eurasian Wigeon - eclipse drake remained until 20th
Common Teal - increasing daily, from 33 on 18th to 45 on 25th
*GARGANEY - present throughout
Northern Pochard - 17 present throughout
*RED-CRESTED POCHARD - eclipse drake and 1 juvenile remained until 22nd
Tufted Duck - 108
RUDDY DUCK - present throughout with 2 adult drakes, an adult female and 2 juveniles present on 25th
OSPREY - details forthcoming on my website
Red Kite - up to 8 birds present daily, including at least 3 juveniles
Common Buzzard - again, up to 8 birds seen daily
Eurasian Sparrowhawk - family party of 5 birds survives
Common Kestrel - 2-5 seen daily
HOBBY - 4 present on Wilstone (including 1 juvenile) with a further 4 in College Lake (2 juveniles) (LGRE, Ben Miller, et al)
Red-legged Partridge - pair noted on 24th (LGRE, SR, WC)
Common Pheasant - present
Water Rail - 1 adult present throughout (Ian Williams)
Moorhen and Coot - present; no counts undertaken
RINGED PLOVER - 1 flew over on 24th (LGRE, SR, WC)
Lapwing - 311 on bund
Common Sandpiper - 2 juveniles present throughout
COMMON GREENSHANK - 2 juveniles present from at least 18th were joined by a third juvenile on 21st and a fourth (the Pitstone Quarry juvenile) from 24th-26th (LGRE et al)
*ICELANDIC BLACK-TAILED GODWIT - 4 juveniles were present from late afternoon until 2005 hours on 19th (AN, DB) - see photographs
*EURASIAN CURLEW - 2 visited Wilstone briefly (0630 hours) on 22md (RH, DB)
Black-headed Gull - up to 400 in area
**WHIMBREL - 1 flew over on Wilstone on 24th (SR)
YELLOW-LEGGED GULL - at least 5 birds present in area throughout, including two adults and three juveniles (LGRE, DB, et al)
Lesser Black-backed Gull - up to 90 birds present, with a mixture of both internedius and graellsii
Common Tern - up to 10, with 7 adults present on 25th (including an abnormally plumaged individual - see notes)
*ARCTIC TERN - 1 juvenile during heavy rain on Startopsend Reservoir at 0740 hours on 24th (Mike Wallen)
Stock Dove - resident pair seen daily
Woodpigeon - 360+ ny Dry Canal
Collared Dove - present
Little Owl - 1 adult roosting in tree behind car park
COMMON SWIFT - recorded daily, but with just singles on 23rd, 24th & 25th
Common Kingfisher - 2
Great Spotted Woodpecker
Sand Martin - very small numbers noted
Barn Swallow - noted passage, with 60+ through on most days
House Martin - large numbers present daily, with 86 on 25th
Pied Wagtail - 11 present on Wilstone including 1 juvenile still being fed
YELLOW WAGTAIL - 5 on 21st (WC), with singles on 22nd and 24th. Five flew east on 25th (LGRE)
Grey Wagtail - 5 including 2 juveniles
Wren, Dunnock & Robin - present
*WHINCHAT - juvenile present in hedge by new outflow briefly on 25th (Stuart Wilson)
Mistle Thrush & Common Blackbird - present
Blackcap - at least 8 still remaining
Lesser Whitethroat - 2 still remaining (to 25th)
Common Whitethroat - 1 trapped on 25th
Sedge Warbler - 15+ in reedbed
*CETTI'S WARBLER - adult female and juvenile trapped in reedbed on 25th (MC, WC)
European Reed Warbler - 30+ in reedbed
Willow Warbler - 1 trapped on 25th
Common Chiffchaff - 20+ remaining
Goldcrest - 14+
Great Tit, Coal Tit, Blue Tit and Long-tailed Tit; Common Treecreeper, Jackdaw, Carrion Crow & Rook
Common Starling - peak of 51 birds
House Sparrow - 43 by Marsworth 'Angler's Retreat' garden
Chaffinch, Linnet, Goldfinch & Greenfinch
**COMMON CROSSBILL - 4 over on 25th (WC, MC)
Reed Bunting - 3-5 present