WEDNESDAY 8 APRIL 2009

Overnight rain dropped in a host of new migrants, including an Osprey, Whimbrel and 3 Yellow Wagtails. A fresh westerly wind dominated the weather all day but it did stay dry and bright and temperatures still managed to climb as high as 17.5 degrees C.

Adam Bassett texted me at 0930 hours informing me of a WHIMBREL on the spit at Little Marlow GP - a good year tick. I set off. No sooner had I got in the car than Simon rang - Darren Oakley-Martin (of the RSPB) had taken a call from an Amersham resident informing him of an OSPREY flying overhead. I immediately diverted to the Chess River Valley then the Ingrebourne Valley but to no avail - the Osprey had flown. And then conversely - Adam rang at 1010 hours just as I was pulling off the M40 to say that the Whimbrel had just been flushed by a Sparrowhawk and had flown off noisily westwards.....and into oblivion. Oh well, just my luck lately, but thanks guys for the instant dissemination of news..

I then decided to do a full CBC at Weston Turville Reservoir. Sadly, on route, a freshly hit Badger was on the Ellesborough Road just west of Wendover (at SP 863 075).

WESTON TURVILLE RESERVOIR (BUCKS) (Full CBC undertaken 1040-1150 hours) (32 species)

No sign of the Sedge Warbler or Marsh Tit recorded earlier in the morning

Great Crested Grebe (4)
Sinensis Cormorant (1 immature)
Mute Swan (pair, with the female incubating eggs on nest)
Canada Geese (1 pair)
Mallard (12 - 6 pairs)
GADWALL (pair keeping much to the reedbed)
Common Pheasant (male in Perch Cottage garden)
Eurasian Coot (12)
Common Buzzard (1)
Red Kite (1 over the field NW of the dam)
Black-headed Gull (1 first-summer present already possessing a full chocolate-brown hood)
Woodpigeon (22+ pairs)
GREY WAGTAIL (male by the sluice at north end at SP 859 097)
Eurasian Skylark (singing male over crop field north of the Boat House)
Dunnock (pair in hedgerow on World's End Lane opposite reservoir entrance and additional singing male on SW side)
Wren (7 territories)
European Robin (5 singing males)
Common Blackbird (1 singing male and nesting pair)
CETTI'S WARBLER (vocal individual close to the Susan Cowdy Hide)
BLACKCAP (5 singing males, with an additional pair nest-building in NE corner)
COMMON CHIFFCHAFF (5 singing males)
WILLOW WARBLER (3 singing males with one in trees by the entrance and two within 50 yards of each other from the boardwalk)
Goldcrest (2 singing males)
Blue Tit (9 singing males)
Great Tit (7 singing males)
Long-tailed Tit (pair nesting by Boat House)
Chaffinch (6 singing males)
Greenfinch (male flew over)
Jackdaw (7, with breeding colony in chimney of Perch Cottage at SP 866 096)
Carrion Crow (pair in field NW of dam)
Magpie (pair in field NW of dam)
REED BUNTING (5 singing males in reedbed, including an amazing white-headed individual)

SPLASH COVERT, WESTON TURVILLE (SP 868 117)

A ROOKERY containing 33 active nests on Weston Road.

WILSTONE RESERVOIR (HERTS) (Midday-1330 hours) (with Adrian Condon)
Despite searching, failed to locate the Common Redstart again

Mute Swan (5 adults)
Greylag Geese (32)
Gadwall (9)
Shoveler (5)
EURASIAN WIGEON (pair still remaining)
Tufted Duck (85)
Eurasian Coot (158, some now nest-sitting)
Black-headed Gull (1 adult winter - JT take note)
*COMMON TERNS (2 adults)

Common Buzzard (1 over)
Stock Dove (pair flew over)
SAND MARTINS (157)
Pied Wagtails (2 males)
Mistle Thrush (pair nesting by main car park)
BLACKCAP (singing male near hide entrance trail)
COMMON CHIFFCHAFF (2 singing males by hide)
*WILLOW WARBLER (2 singing males in bushes, trees and scrub behind Drayton Bank Hide - my first for the site this year)

COLLEGE LAKE (BUCKS)

Very quiet, with a pair of Gadwall and 5 Shoveler on the main marsh, and a singing male WILLOW WARBLER (my first in Bucks this year)

PITSTONE QUARRY

A RED KITE overflew the quarry pool flushing up a pair of COMMON REDSHANK. Great Crested Grebe still there, 5 Little Grebes, 7 Tufted Ducks, a Stock Dove (scarce here), a male BLACKCAP, singing male COMMON CHIFFCHAFF and pair of Long-tailed Tits.

TUNNEL WAY SCRAPES, PITSTONE (BUCKS)

Now largely dried up, a single pair of LITTLE RINGED PLOVERS was still present. A Green Woodpecker was also seen, as well as a Linnet.

TRING AREA

I then undertook a detailed survey of the ROOKERIES in Tring, with 28 active nests opposite Massey House in Brook Street (SP 926 120), 19 in Poplars west of the railway SE of Tring Station at SP 953 119) and 16 in Pendley Manor Grounds (SP 943 114) - total of 63 pairs. The 6 nests by Pennyroyal Court on Station Road which were being prospected in February now lay abandoned.

PENDLEY BEECHES LODGE RIDGEWAY FOOTPATH (SP 944 113)

A narrow strip of deciduous woodland west of the footpath leading to Chestnut Wood yielded Green Woodpecker, a Nuthatch, European Robin and a male BLACKCAP.

WIGGINTON BOTTOM FLATS (SP 944 083)

This is an area of heathland where I recorded successful nesting of Woodlark in 2007. Today it is largely overgrown and Birch scrub has infiltrated. Species noted included 2 singing COMMON CHIFFCHAFFS, 2 singing COAL TITS, a male BLACKCAP and a Great Spotted Woodpecker.

WIGGINTON VILLAGE

A total of 5 HOUSE SPARROWS was in gardens by the Chesham Road junction (at SP 940 103) (scarce species in area) with a singing male COMMON CHIFFCHAFF in Bull's Wood.

Thanks to Chaz Jackson, I was able to make it back to Wilstone in the evening, where I eventually connected with the stunning male COMMON REDSTART present for its second day just SE of the Lower Icknield Way by the dried-up manure heap at SP 897 131, about 0.25 miles NW of the NW corner of Wilstone Reservoir. I located it in the hedgerow adjacent to the manure pile at 1915 hours but it was generally very elusive. It was flycatching for a short while before it became inactive and sat low down and partially obscured in the same place for over 15 minutes. I beckoned over Ed Griffiths (who was at Wilstone Reservoir) and showed him the bird as it was roosting and it was still on view when I left the site at 1945 hours (with a full moon shining).

I was also very pleased to see 4 RED-LEGGED PARTRIDGES and two male YELLOWHAMMERS in the same area, as well as a singing Eurasian Skylark and 3 COMMON SNIPE. Lapwings had increased to 5 birds.