DIVER still present

THURSDAY 27 FEBRUARY

 

For an edition with images click http://birdingamersham.blogspot.co.uk/2014/03/thursday-27-february.html

 

A lot of rain during the morning which eventually cleared and gave way to a pleasant afternoon....

 

The female BULLFINCH was again on the birdtable feeding on white sunflower hearts, whilst the highlight at LATIMER PLACE was a local pair of COMMON RAVEN flying back and forth with nesting material, seemingly coming down to the west of the house. The gardens also held Common Magpie, Common Starling, Common Blackbird, Great Tit, Wren, 2 Robins and a singing Mistle Thrush, with 3 Carrion Crows on the field.

 

LATIMER GREAT WATER held 4 Mute Swans, 8 Mallard, 27 Tufted Duck, 6 Moorhen, 12 Coot and a Grey Heron, with Stock Dove, 12 Jackdaw and Common Blackbird nearby, whilst the Chess from NEPTUNES FALLS TO LATIMER BRIDGE added a Little Grebe, 5 Mute Swans (two separate pairs and a single), 14 Atlantic Canada Geese, 4 Mallard, 6 Tufted Duck, 4 Coot and 4 Moorhen, as well as Nuthatch, 18 Jackdaw, 2 Wren, 3 Blue Tit, Robin, 2 Great Tit, Carrion Crow and a pair of Long-tailed Tits.

 

Walking east from LATIMER BRIDGE quickly yielded a single Little Egret by the river, 5 soaring Common Buzzards, 8 Jackdaw, 5 Mallard and a Wren, whilst at CHURCH COVERT (still completely under water and flooding over), a singing Goldcrest in the ivy, Common Blackbird, a Little Grebe, Blue Tit, Grey Heron and another Wren. The 6 COMMON TEAL were still by the river and the LITTLE OWL was just about visible in the pollarded Willow tree.

 

At CHENIES BOTTOM, the usual pair of Mute Swan was present as well as a recently-arrived pair of Coot at the bridge - also Little Egret and 2 Moorhens in MILL FARM MEADOWS. A pair of Red Kite and Carrion Crow were investigating the Larches of WALLACE'S WOOD PLANTATION with 37 Jackdaws close by.

 

I did a thorough search of BALDWIN'S WOOD but little of note other than Jay, 3 Robin, Wren, 2 Coal Tit (singing males), Woodpigeon, 2 Long-tailed Tit (pair), Blue Tit, 5 Common Buzzard, 2 Great Spotted Woodpecker, 5 Great Tit, Common Blackbird, 8 Redwing (in a cacophony of song), 6 Goldcrest (party of 5 and a singing male), Chaffinch and Common Treecreeper.

 

In FLAUNDEN BOTTOM, a large corvid flock in the fields consisted of 9 Carrion Crow, 66 Rook and 79 Jackdaw, whilst LATIMER VILLAGE held 4 Robin, 2 Common Magpie, Pied Wagtail, Blue Tit, Common Blackbird, 3 Jackdaw, Goldfinch, Chaffinch, Great Spotted Woodpecker and 10 Fan-tailed Doves in Holly Tree Cottage grounds. At neighbouring PARKFIELD LATIMER, up to 33 Rook nests were now occupied.

 

Leaving the Chess Valley for pastures new up north of the county, I started off at LINFORD NATURE RESERVE. Although I could not locate the Smew in a short search from Near Hide, I did count 13 Great Crested Grebe, 2 Little Egret, 58 Wigeon, 18 Teal, 7 Shoveler, 2 Lapwing, 27 Coot, Moorhen and 8 Black-headed Gulls, while in the scrub, 2 Common Magpie, Green Woodpecker, 3 Song Thrush, 5 Fieldfare, 5 Robin, 2 Dunnock, Wren and Common Treecreeper were noted. At the Woodland Hide, both single Marsh and WILLOW TITS were visiting the suet, as well as up to 8 Great Tits and 6 Blue Tits. A WATER RAIL was squealing nearby from an area of water.

 

At LATHBURY VILLAGE, a nice selection of passerines, with 4 Collared Dove, 4 Common Starling, 18 House Sparrows (healthy population), Common Buzzard, 2 Mistle Thrush, 12 Redwing, 6 Fieldfare, Coal Tit and Song Thrush recorded, as well as several Rooks gathering acorns previously buried last autumn.

 

Just up the road from there, roadside fields just south of STOKE GOLDINGTON VILLAGE produced 96 Woodpigeon and 150 Fieldfare, whilst in DAG LANE, 15 TREE SPARROWS were in the usual garden, along with Collared Dove, 25 Blue Tits, male House Sparrow, Long-tailed Tit (on the feeders), 4 Great Tit, Chaffinch, Common Blackbird, Dunnock and Robin.

 

An area of paddocks harbouring horses, sheep and other livestock at CROW TREE LODGE/EAKLEY MANOR COTTAGE (SP 8251) yielded Common Blackbird, Dunnock, Robin,Carrion Crow, Blue Tit, Woodpigeon, Chaffinch and 4 Greenfinch.

 

TYRINGHAM BRIDGE had 27 Greylag Geese, 29 Canada Geese, 7 Mute Swan, 6 Mallard, 6 Moorhen, 3 Cormorant, 2 Common Blackbird and 2 Robin.

 

Moving back south, I stopped off at STEWARTBY LAKE (BEDS), where the long-staying juvenile GREAT NORTHERN DIVER was still present, along with 33 Great Crested Grebes, 6 Tufted Duck and a gull roost containing 2,936 Black-headed, 221 Common, 2 summer-plumaged adult MEDITERRANEAN, 2 Argenteus Herring and just 24 Lesser Black-backed. Most disconcerting though was the sight of a wind generator on the horizon - located on a nature reserve!

 

Along the A404, a mile east of LITTLE CHALFONT, a dead Badger at TQ 020 978

Local Snippets

Late afternoon at Willington: 459 Barnacle Geese inc the white-headed bird, 1 Water Rail, 1 male Siskin and my first Oystercatcher in Beds this year.

Stewartby Lake (gull roost with Neil Wright): 1 adult Med Gull with pretty much full black hood now, 17 Lesser Black-backs, 3 Herring Gulls inc regular pair of adult argenteus, again no G B Backs; juv Great Northern Diver showing very well in the middle of the lake at 5.45pm

MJP

Stewartby Lake roost

I visited Stewartby Lake roost from 4.22 to 5.17 this evening and had some real treats…… plus 1 P Smith in his Landrover on the far side of the lake who wasn’t there for the long haul, though, to be fair, from his parked position in the sailing club car park, the gulls would have been at an awkward angle to scrutinize!

Anyhow…… a good sized roost with numerous Common Gulls amongst the many hundreds of B H Gulls assembled. At least 6 Herring Gulls were present, inc 1 argentatus, also 2 adult Great Black-backs, an eventual total of 31+ Lesser Black-backs, the adult winter Med Gull was present again but best were a pair of adult Yellow-legged Gulls though regrettably, after scoping them for ten minutes or more, they flew off north, presumably to roost at Grafham, a couple of minutes after 5.00pm – a new species for the Beds year-list!

The juvenile Great Northern Diver was showing very well late on, staying on the surface for several minutes and still present in the middle of the lake at 5.15pm. A Water Rail was by the gull watchpoint and a Kingfisher flew close past me, whilst the Great Spotted Woodpecker came into its roost tree by the watch-point c4.30.

MJP

Yesterday Roundup - MJP

Sorry for late posting….. spent 10.00 to 3.00 “in the field” y’day 31/1 and then, after a hospital visit, v. brief visits to Stew Lake and Broggie between 4.30 and 4.50.

Highlights were:

Octagon Farm:~ Little Egret, 3 Snipe, 4 Bullfinches

Bedford STW:~ Green Sandpiper calling and seen well as it flew south-east over the A421 towards Cople, 1 Chiffchaff again, calling and showing well along the hedgerow

Meadow Lane GP’s:~ 2 Mistle Thrushes, well over 1500 Golden Plover (possibly twice that figure) and 500+ Lapwings, 18 Skylarks, 4 Mipits, 2 Snipe, 1 Jack Snipe, 2 Common Redshank again

Mox Hill:~ 2 Mistle Thrushes

Sheerhatch:~ 2 Red Kites south of the reservoir

Swiss Garden:~ no luck (again) with L Sp W’pecker but 1 Jay and 13 Siskins by roadside trees

G M Growers, U Caldecote:~ 2 Grey Partridges west of, 1 very nice jumbo hot-dog with all the trimmings = excellent cholesterol count!

Furzenhall Farm;~ raining now and bleak but pair of Stonechats showing very well in the first paddocks

Gypsy Lane West:~ rain, no Merlin, no Blain, no Curlew

Gypsy Lane East:~ rain, 1 Shelduck

Southill Bend:~ 1 female Brambling amongst flock of 50+ Chaffinches but no show by Linnet flock

Southill Lake:~ 50+ Greylags but no Egyptian Geese or Pinkfoot today, 14 Brown Hares in field on north side of lane

Pastures Farm, S of Cardington:~ 14 Yellowhammers, 3 Corn Buntings, 1 Reed Bunting – it is important to only view from the Southill Road here, the farm track is strictly private (TL095463)

Stewartby Lake:~ appalling conditions with no wildfowl visible but 2 argenteus Harring Gulls, 3 L B Backs, 1 adult Great Black-back

Brogborough Lake:~ just 1f Goldeneye from the gull watchpoint, no gulls, 28 Cormorants. The wildfowl, apart from Coots spread across the lake, were all gathered tightly in the south-east corner away from the horrid weather.

In all 74 species today, 4 up on my New Year day list with Green Sandpiper and Stonechat taking my Beds year-list up to 106, (4 down on 2013), of which 96 have counted as self-found. The total County year-list at the end of January is 115 which I’ll detail over the weekend in a separate email.

MJP  

Wednesday 29/1

Pip H and I took a stroll around Meadow Lane DP’s this afternoon…… a Chiffchaff was along the hedgerow as we passed Bedford STW, over to the east on the field beside the cycle path just before it crosses the A421 were hundreds of Lapwings with an estimate 1.5 to 2 thousand Golden Plovers – a spectacular sight, 2 single Redshanks flew up as did 5 Common Snipe.

Later we visited Chimney Corner South ClP where a pair of Pintail was my third self-found year tick of the day taking me up to 95 species so far this year; at least 34 Magpies were gathering amongst the bushes along the north-west side.

It was bleak and rainy at Stewartby Lake around 4.30 but the juvenile Great Northern Diver was initially seen by the water-ski hut and very soon after some 600m close just by us at the old green hut viewpoint along Green Lane. Nought of note in the gulls excepting there were only two larger individuals – both L B Backs.

Redshank and Pintail take my personal tally for Beds this year up to 104, the overall list standing at 114 – I’ll send out a full list for January at the weekend.

MJP

A few snippets

Martin Palmer just called - Four adult WHOOPER SWANS currently at Stewartby Lake, along the MVCP side, 16:00, also GREAT NORTHERN DIVER still present. Earlier on, a flock of over 100 BLACK-TAILED GODWITS flew over Millbrook Pillinge.

2013 - A summary

First off, a very Happy New Year to everyone and, secondly, apologies for the late posting of my final list for 2013 due to family commitments. Well, despite an amazing month nationally for both birds and extreme weather – I got to see Baikal Teal, Hume’s Leaf Warbler, Ivory Gull and Brunnich’s Guillemot and many other excellent offerings during December bird trips and you’ll all know about the weather !!! – there was only one addition to the Bedfordshire year list – the imm Shag found at Priory CPk by Tony P and Dave K. This brought the final tally to 197 – good, but comparatively poor by the recent standards we’ve all set.

The 197 listed below all have been, where necessary, or look set to be, accepted by the local rarities committee. In addition during the year I have heard or read of a number of other reports and these follow here – some may be the real deal, so to speak, but descriptions have not, so far as I’m aware, been sent to Richard Bashford et al for verification or have but, in a few cases, not been substantiated:

Great White Egret, Willington GP’s 9^th January 2013; Northern Goshawk Broom GP’s 27^th January; (presumed escaped) White Stork over Upper Caldicote 14^th April; Black Kite, The Lodge, Sandy 18^th June; Red-footed Falcon, Millbrook Pillinge 23rd June; European Honey Buzzard, Dunstable 20^th August; Richard’s Pipit, The Lodge, Sandy 15^th October and Common Crane over Sandy 26^th December.

Good December sightings about the County included Whooper Swans, a Scaup, a Great Northern Diver, a Common Scoter, a Great Grey Shrike, a Merlin or two, a Firecrest, a couple of Siberian Chiffchaffs and a few Short-eared Owls.

In the year-listing stakes, Jim Gurney, Steve Blain and I all finished on 185. Gannet, Osprey, Black-tailed Godwit, Whimbrel, Sandwich Tern, Wood Lark, Tree Pipit, Pied Flycatcher, R B Shrike, Black Redstart, Firecrest and Hawfinch were the dozen I missed (Martin J Palmer)