A Wet Start to 2014

Jan 3rd - I eventually made my first new year visit to the patch - woefully late for a keen patcher! This was to view the gull roost, so not even an attempt to pick up easy year ticks, but hoping for a nice wind blown seabird like a Kittiwake.

The wet weather had caused the lake to rise substantially since my last visit, which was a couple of weeks ago.  The southern part of the spit was largely under water, with just a few outcrops where the birds were gathering.  Many of the LWHG had chosen to land on the areas west of the island, so were actually reasonably close, whereas the flighty BHG and Common Gulls were split between here and a raft on the far eastern side, so were less easy to view.

The main highlight was the build up of Great Black-backs which usually happens around this time.  I counted 52 birds, being mainly adult.  Otherwise, just Herring and LBBG with many hundreds of BHG and Common Gulls.

All the usual duck were present in good numbers whilst a couple of Snipe still had areas of soft mud to probe.

Jan 7th - yet more rain and a fast rising river Thames adjacent meant the lake was still higher this morning.  Just the base of the spit is still above water and consequently no loafing gulls, which is one of my areas of interest.  The regulars had counted the wildfowl at the weekend, so being lazy, I have copied these counts to give a flavour for the number of duck present:

358 Tufted Duck
123 Pochard
162 Wigeon
94 Gadwall
66 Shoveler

These condition s are very similar to early winter last year when Pintail found the conditions to their liking and built up in reasonable numbers, so I hope the same happens this year.  2 Little Grebe were still showing and I had 2 on the 3rd as well, but otherwise nothing out of the ordinary.

I was just able to make a circuit of the lake, thought the southern side requires wellies.  The flood meadows are flooded right up to the railway track and look even deeper than I remember them last year - no chance of any dog walkers there at the moment, but also disappointingly no birds - probably too deep at the moment, but as the water retreats it might be interesting.

The small tree line in the distance is the edge of the river

The small tree line in the distance is the edge of the river

You can just see the top of a riverside bench to the right



Grazing paddocks

With little added to the year list, I went and year ticked the Bucks Cattle Egret still remaining faithful to the cattle fields to the west of Steeple Claydon in the north of the county.

You can see how muddy the cattle's legs are