MONDAY 17 MARCH
Although the wind had increased a bit and
was coming from a Northwesterly direction, it was still very pleasant in the sun
and was bright and dry......
I spent another day locally, trying to find
a few incoming migrants......
At SHARDELOES LAKE first thing, there was no
sign of the 8 Mandarin or Teal from yesterday (RDA), nor of the recent Great
Crested Grebe, but 12 Little Grebe still (many actively and loudly 'whinnying'),
an adult Sinensis Cormorant, 2 Grey Herons (an adult summer
encouragingly standing on the island), all 3 Mute Swans (although the young
female now isolated), 345 Atlantic Canada Geese, 8 Mallard, 12 Gadwall, 17
Tufted Duck, an adult drake Northern Pochard, 58 Coot and a WATER RAIL calling.
Other species encountered included Green Woodpecker, 3 Red Kite, 5 singing
Wrens, Carrion Crow pair, Blue Tit pair, a singing male Mistle Thrush, Nuthatch,
singing Common Treecreeper, 2 Common Magpie, Stock Dove, 2 Common Blackbird, 30
Jackdaw and a flyover juvenile Herring Gull. A male REED BUNTING was singing
from reeds up at the far end and the Rookery held 18 active nests.
Over at PENN STREET, the Rookery there held
24 active nests, with a Mistle Thrush singing. An hour or so spent in PENN WOOD
SSSI revealed the presence of at least 2 singing male FIRECRESTS along the
heavily tree-laden avenue on the south side of the main paddock (in the vicinity
of the new gating), along with 5 Goldcrests, , Great Tit, 3 Nuthatch, 2 Jays,
Stock Dove, 4 Wren, Robin, singing male Mistle Thrush, Red Kite, Woodpigeon, a
single singing male COMMON CHIFFCHAFF (only the second in my immediate Recording
Area this year), Common Blackbird, a pair of Bullfinch, SISKIN, Common Magpie,
Great Spotted Woodpecker, Blue Tit, Coal Tit, Green Woodpecker and a singing
male Song Thrush.
I then joined Francis Buckle, Tony and
Richard at WILSTONE RESERVOIR (TRING) where we were unable to locate yesterday's
3 Pintail nor any migrant Sand Martins. In fact, the only migrant was a singing
COMMON CHIFFCHAFF in the plantation on the East Bank; a drake Red-crested
Pochard was present too. Otherwise very quiet, with few duck remaining - 34
Greylag Geese, 7 Gadwall, 15 Teal, 9 Wigeon, 63 Shoveler, 11 Pochard and 107
Tufted Duck, 1+ Goldeneye, 5 Great Crested Grebe, Little Egret, Grey Heron (6
active nests), Sinensis Cormorant (15 active nests) and 4 Pied
Wagtails. The fields behind the Dry Canal still held 260 Fieldfare and 180
Common Starling.
At STARTOP'S END RESERVOIR, highlight was a
single winter-plumaged DUNLIN that made a brief attempt to land at 1253 hours
before heading off north calling. No sign of the Water Pipit but 5 Mute Swans, 2
pairs of Great Crested Grebe, 22 Tufted Duck, just 14 Coot, 25 Black-headed
Gull, 2 Greylag Geese, Wren and a COMMON CHIFFCHAFF singing close to the bend in
the road. A group of 8 House Sparrows was by the Angler's Retreat, with
the usual pair of Carrion Crow nesting in the car park and 2 Greenfinches there;
a Small Tortoiseshell butterfly was also seen.
On MARSWORTH RESERVOIR, little to add - the
Mute Swan pair (including '4ABL'), 16 Canada Geese, 2 Tufted Duck, 4 Great
Crested Grebe, 2 Coot, 10 Mallard and a flyover juvenile Herring Gull, as well
as CETTI'S WARBLER singing from the reedbed (on the far side) and another COMMON
CHIFFCHAFF in the 'wood'.
A Mistle Thrush showed well on the verge at
PITSTONE INDUSTRIAL ESTATE, where 2 Woodpigeon and a male Linnet were also
noted. PITSTONE HILL was alive with the sound of singing Skylarks (6 males at
least) but no Wheatears or Corn Buntings - the former also gone from Ivinghoe
Beacon. DOWN FARM AND ENVIRONS yielded a cronking pair of COMMON RAVEN,
3 Common Buzzard, 2 Red Kite and around 30 Jackdaw.
A pair of EURASIAN CURLEW were back in their
usual field near EATON BRAY where in the village, 4 Common Blackbird, 8 Collared
Dove, Chaffinch, Wren and 6+ House Sparrows were recorded.
The singing male DARTFORD WARBLER remained
in NW BEDFORDSHIRE, where I also connected with my first pair of MANDARIN DUCK
for that county this year. Numerous singing male Song Thrush as usual (6+), 2
Green Woodpecker, 5 Linnet, 3 Stock Dove, Coal Tit and Skylark also recorded.
No comments:
Post a Comment