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