.......and more WHIMBRELS

By early afternoon, at least 23 WHIMBREL had flown east over Wilstone Reservoir, including a single flock of 18 birds photographed by Dan Forder. A further 4 were seen today at Tyttenhanger GP and a whopping 73 flew east over Staines Reservoirs

Cracking GREY PLOVER heralds a fantastic wader passage day

10 Species of wader this morning!

Wilstone:
3 GREENSHANK on the bank close to the jetty at 6am for 10 mins before they flew off towards College
1 WHIMBREL settled on jetty briefly 8:45
2 Common Sandpipers

College Lake
In addition to the usual Redshanks, Lapwings, Oycs and LRP
1 GREY PLOVER, a fantastic full breeding plumaged individual on the marsh in front of the new hide 6:40 - 7:10 (picture above)
5 GREENSHANK, on tern island these birds flew off 8:05
1 WHIMBREL over 10am
3 TURNSTONES, on the tern island 10:10 (initially at Wilstone by Steve)
1 Common Sand on the marsh
1 Ringed Plover

Pitstone Industrial Estate
1 Ringed Plover

Pitstone Quarry
2 LRPs

Dave Bilcock

What a good year for the....Whitethroats

Nothing particularly of interest but just an update.

Tues Evening 4th May Steps Hill/Incombe Hole 1700-1900 Surprisingly, when I arrived the cold NE wind had subsided and Steps/Incombe was calm with bursts of warm setting sun. Making my way through the scrub the bushes were full of singing whitethroats, blackcaps, song thrush, willow warblers and chiffchaff. Disappointed there was no sign of the singing lesser whitethroat which had been holding territory there on Fri 30th April. Eventually heard and saw a pair of garden warblers.

Through the gate on the right a nice posing Common Whitethroat which allowed me to take some snaps (see above). Moving left a pair of blackcap were scolding an innocent willow warbler which had strayed too near their nesting site. Incombe Hole was fairly quiet with just the usual chaffinch, robin, blackbird, blackcap, magpie, kestrel, yellowhammer and another whitethroat with the best bird of the evening being a lingering female wheatear feeding half way down the slop.

Amazingly, for this time of the day, I was the only person here - not a dog, jogger, cyclist or walker in sight, sheer bliss! (Sally Douglas)

Purring EUROPEAN TURTLE DOVE this evening

BANK HOLIDAY MONDAY 3 MAY (WEEK 18)

Well, it certainly does not feel like the first week in May. I had to resort again to winter gloves today and throughout, the fresh Northeasterly wind was biting. Temperatures struggled to make double figures but at least it remained largely dry, with just the odd light shower.

With so many rares being 1 or 2 dayers of late, I decided to spend the day locally, catching up on vital survey work. It was a very rewarding day, climaxed with a new colony of FIRECRESTS and at the end by a purring EUROPEAN TURTLE DOVE - a very rare sight indeed locally these days........

Whilst I was failing to find Turtle Dove, Steve Rodwell was watching one..........

TOP SCRUB, IVINGHOE BEACON (BUCKS)
(evening visit)

Joining Steve and Vicky and David Bilcock, all four of us listened intently to the sweet soft purring of a EUROPEAN TURTLE DOVE from dense Hawthorn scrub in the Top Scrub at Ivinghoe, 200 yards from the main car park. In the fierce NE wind and above the constant whine of aircraft after aircraft taxi-ing into Luton Airport, it was difficult to hear this distinctive sound of summer and after much searching, we all eventually obtained flight views of the bird.

Top Scrub also held 6 singing male GARDEN WARBLERS and 3 COMMON SWIFTS flew east (Lee Evans).

MARSH HARRIER now departed

The female MARSH HARRIER departed Wilstone to the NE at around 1300 hours (Steve Rodwell) and otherwise it is very quiet today within the recording area.

Roy's early morning round-up

Obviously this morning was never going to be as good as yesterday, and indeed it wasn’t. However it wasn’t bad.

There was an Oystercatcher flying round calling soon after I arrived and the female Marsh Harrier was up over the reedbed by the boathouse at 5:50. I also had a Dunlin on the edge between the Jetty and North Corner. A Little Egret was roosting in the bushes in the centre and nine Arctic Terns dropped in, with five leaving after a short time. Hirundine numbers were also well down on yesterday’s figures (Roy Hargreaves)

First TURTLE DOVE of year

Mick Frosdick discovered a EUROPEAN TURTLE DOVE in the paddocks east of Marsworth Reservoir yesterday afternoon, which later relocated in the field adjacent to the lane just beyond College Farm in Marsworth and showed well for ten minutes or more feeding on the ground.

There was also a single ARCTIC TERN on Marsworth Reservoir in the afternoon