White and Yellow

9th May - strong south westerlies don't usually produce birds, so I wasn't expecting much.  A couple of Common Sands and a LRP on the spit, but also a nice White Wagtail.  I'd been away when the main push of these came through in late March early April, so it was nice to pick one up.  It was lame in its left leg, which might even have been missing, so was hopping and fluttering over the spit and may have been the reason it was a little late.

There were plenty of Swifts and hirundines flying fairly low over the water and Common Tern numbers were up to 20 birds, but they still pay little attention to the newly placed tern rafts.

As usual, a little flock of loafing LWHG was gathered.  Mainly second and third calendar year Herring Gulls, with a few LBB Gulls.  However, of note was a 1st winter/summer GBB Gull, which I'd also seen at nearby Fulmer Lake on the 2nd and a 1st summer Yellow-legged Gull.  This bird has been present on and off since late April, but being quite bleached, I've taken my time in confirming it.  The lesser and median coverts are bleached to almost white, but there are several new generation feathers growing through, which is always a good sign for YLG at this time of year.  What you can see of the outer greater coverts look to be dark centred, which is another good feature.  The tertials are all dark centred, though the tips are worn.  The head is white (as are most 2cy Herring/LBB Gulls at the moment!), but there is still a little dark streaking around the eye.  The bill is all dark, with a slight pale tip and large and heavy and the head is quite square looking.  Heavy neck/nape streaking helps the white head to stand out and the inner scap markings look OK.  Structurally, it is quite long legged, long winged and high breasted, so all in all, good features for YLG.  In flight, it is moulting its inner primaries.  A few record shots below:

The GBB Gull

More Wood

7th May - probably the hottest day of the year so far.  A morning visit showed me that it was all quiet on the migrant front - just a Common Sand and 2 LRPs representing the waders and 3 Shelduck.  Another visit in the early afternoon found exactly the same - I did attempt to string a/the distant Common Sand feeding in a peculiar manner gently picking flies off the mud - in the heat haze, it bore a passing resemblance to a Wood Sand, but this didn't last for too long!

Whilst cooking dinner in the evening, I received a text from regular stalwart Alan S, saying that there was now a Wood Sand on the spit - what a coincidence!  I had to finish my culinary delights, but then left mine warming in the oven, whilst I took an unusual evening jaunt to the pit to join Alan S, Malcolm P, Simon P and Jim R to admire the newly arrived beauty.  Luckily it was feeding on the near spit and gave very good scope views.  Unfortunately, the light was dipping, so record shots became more difficult - my best rubbish attempt is below.  Thankfully, Jim R has a rather better set up than me so managed much better and has allowed me to show a couple of his.

Best of a bad bunch!

Much better, courtesy Jim Rose

And another by Jim Rose

Crane!

6th May - another early morning visit, though a bit later today - well it is bank holiday!  I was on site about 7:30am on yet another lovely sunny morning.  2 Common Sands and 2 LRPs were the only waders visible, so I walked to the meadow.  This has been fairly unproductive this year (apart from the Avocet!), so I was pleased to see a nice male Wheatear - my first of the year here.  It looked good for Greenland Wheatear, being quite orange on the breast, tall and pot-bellied with thickish legs.  I struggled to get a record shot in focus due to the heat haze, even at this time, but here it is:

I continued my walk to the eastern side, enjoying the warbler song, but still no Cuckoo!  I also hung around watching the Common Terns in case a Black appeared, as they seemed to be on the move in other areas today, but no luck.  So I walked back round to the western bank, where Alan S and Kim D were sitting.  We had a chat saying that something might well drop in today and as we spoke, I put my bins on a large bird flapping over the base of the spit towards us and suddenly exclaimed, "Crane!".  A lovely adult Crane was flying over fairly low from the east.  It looked to be going straight over, but then suddenly banked and started to circle over the car park area.  This gave me an opportunity to grab a record shot as it circled through the tree line from where we were watching.  I also scoped the bird to see whether I could see any colour rings on its legs, which might indicate Somerset origin, but they looked clean.  After a few minutes, it suddenly reverted to its westward path and flew off - fantastic and another patch tick!

real life hand held camera

Cropped and pixilated

Real life through the trees

Cropped and pixilated

After the Crane departed, so did I, but whilst driving back towards Marlow, I saw the bird again - it was flying distantly over the centre of Marlow going roughly WNW being followed by a couple of (tiny!) Red Kites.  This was about 9:15am.  At about 10:45am, presumably the same bird was seen on this flight path near Dorchester Oxford.  I can't believe it took it an hour and a half to get there though, so did it land somewhere in the meantime?  A great morning - Greenshank flew in after I left, but that'll have to wait.

6th Garden Marsh Harrier

5th May - I did an early morning stint at the pit hoping for some waders, but yet again, the weather conditions weren't helpful and apart from an Oystercatcher, 1 or 2 Common Sands and a LRP, there wasn't anything else.

Back at home, I was doing various things in the garden and enjoying the lovely sunny day.  I was eating a late lunch sandwich on the patio at 2:30pm and as usual watching the skies to see what was moving when a dark, long winged, long tailed raptor appeared to the east amongst the usual Red Kites and Buzzards.  I was pretty sure it was a Marsh Harrier and had distant views through my bins.  It started thermalling, which gave me time to run to the car for my scope, through which I had much better views of this female Marshy.  It continued to thermal to quite a height with 2 Buzzards, before drifting off to the south-west.  This is my 6th Marsh Harrier from the garden since 2007, though the first since 2010 and also the first Spring bird.

Several Swifts and plenty of hirundines were also going through at quite a height during the afternoon.

Hat-trick!

29th April - on a tea break mid morning, I had my first Hobby of the year, when 2 birds circled up the valley where I live, briefly joining a couple of Ravens.  I hoped that a quick lunchtime walk around the lake might turn up Hobby there too, but not this time.  Highlight was a rattling Lesser Whitethroat in the eastern hedge and 5 smart Yellow Wagtails in the paddock.  The lingering Common Sand was still feeding around the lake edge rather than on the spit.

The female Whinchat was still in the top vine field at Pump Lane with a pair of Wheatear

30th April - a lovely sunny and warm day, but appeared very quiet on the ground.  A visit to the pit didn't bring anything new - still plenty of Garden Warblers singing - they seem to be in in good numbers this Spring, but no Cuckoo yet.

I decided to visit nearby Marlow Low Grounds, some flooded meadow the other side of Marlow, in the hope of some waders or possibly Garganey.  Walking along Lower Pound Lane, it was very pleasant, but little of note.  The floods themselves were also quiet, a single Snipe probably the best bird, so I began the walk back to the car.  As I passed the last house in the lane, I caught the distant sound of familiar trilling - surely not.  There it was again, the unmistakable song of yet another Wood Warbler.  Something odd is happening with this species this year, as it seems to be turning up in good numbers in the home counties, when it is normally scarce - I guess the cold Spring has had some effect here.  Anyway, this bird was singing fairly regularly and appeared to be doing a circuit between the river and my path, though was never particularly close to me and was always on private land.  In an attempt to actually see the bird rather than just hear it, I rang the bell of the house to see if they minded me standing on their land for a while - they didn't (for a short while anyway).  This didn't really help due to badly placed conifers, so I returned to the path and eventually had reasonable views of the now silent bird as it fed in the nearest trees to me about 50 yards away.  It went very quiet about midday and apart from 2 other observers, I don't know whether it was seen later or not.  My third in 11 days - pretty pleased with that!

Whilst there, 3 Hobbies appeared overhead, so I thought I'd try my luck back at the pit and sure enough a single Hobby flew over early afternoon.  A single Snipe was also still present here on the spit with a pair each of Shelduck and Teal.

Local Redstart and Whinchat

26th April - I wasn't working on Friday and the weather front that had moved through overnight looked good for depositing some interesting migrants.  Unfortunately, I was unable to get out early and by the time I arrived at 10am, if any waders had been present, they were long gone.  A summer plumaged Dunlin and single LRP were the only waders there.  A quick circuit didn't produce anything new either.

I got a text from Alan S in the early afternoon saying that 2 Whimbrel had arrived and as I happened to be passing, I popped in to see these 2 birds roosting on 1 leg on the spit - obviously taking a breather.

I checked out the paddocks at Pump Lane mid afternoon - not included in this patch, but part of my wider patch.  It is a very good site for passage Wheatear and chats.  I had already seen quite a few Wheatear here this Spring, but this afternoon there were an impressive 13 birds together in one of the paddocks.

Then news of Berkshire's first Bonaparte's Gull then broke - a lovely full summer adult - couldn't miss that, so raced off to Hosehill to enjoy this beauty - pics here.  My poor effort below:

27th April - I was out early.  A pair of Oystercatchers, flighty around the spit and a group of 3 Common Sands in the NE corner were the best of the waders.  The eastern paddocks held 5 Yellow Wags and warbler numbers were on the up - no less than 4 singing Reed Warblers, with just a single bird noted the previous day, a couple of Sedgies and my first Whitethroat of the year here.  Best bird was probably the 2cy Caspian Gull, which was resting on the spit with the loafing LWHG before flying off.  This is probably the bird I saw at nearby Fulmer on April 22nd.

Again, I stopped off at Pump Lane on the way home.  I was pretty cold and the Wheatear numbers were lower - I counted at least 5 birds, but they were distant at the north end of the valley, probably trying to shelter from the bitter breeze.  Whilst scoping these birds, I noticed a female Redstart hopping along at the base of the furthest hedge amongst the Wheatear.  It was distant, but obvious and stayed in this small area all day - using the hedgeline, fence and field for cover and food.

28th April - another early morning, but as it was -1.5 degrees when I got in the car, I wasn't hoping for much!  Just as well - I did add a couple of species to the year list that I'm surprised I still needed - a couple of Linnets in the northern field and a pair of Bullfinches along the concrete road.

Once again I visited Pump Lane and my reward was a female Whinchat.  This bird was using the short posts and wires in the top vine field, along with a couple of Wheatear.  The paddocks held just 2 Wheatear, whilst 2 Lesser Whitethroats were singing near here - 1 showing well.  I took a couple of record shots of the Whinchat, but this was quite difficult due to the mass of wires now in place for the vines.

From Yellow to Red

24th April - A morning visit was very quiet, though surprisingly, Collared Dove was new for the year!  Noticeably fewer warblers were singing than in the past week.  A Garden Warbler in the railway hedge and a Sedge Warbler in the slightly odd location of the hedge in the field north of the pit were the best.  The eastern paddock held 4 Yellow Wagtails, which are always nice to see, but otherwise little of note.

In the early afternoon, rather than a return visit to the pit, I decided to visit nearby Marlow low grounds, to check out the floods there.  My reward was my first Lesser Whitethroat of the year and a couple of Mandarin, but otherwise fairly quiet as well.  I had left myself about 20 minutes for a quick check of the pit before school pick-up to see whether anything had dropped in during the morning.  En route, I took a call from Mr Nicholls saying that a Spotted Redshank had been reported there.  Aagh!!!  Bad move visiting the low grounds, I thought, still I was almost on site.  I raced to the lake edge and couldn't see anything, being directed on to a Snipe by a visiting birder.  On to the viewpoint and thankfully there it was, distant and roosting on the back of the spit - relief and patch tick!  After a few minutes, it was disturbed by a few lapwing and flew closer calling and it eventually ended up on the near spit.  It was in transitional plumage, though still looked fairly pale, but I was grateful for the local grapevine and for not being at work this afternoon - thanks to Simon R for finding it.  This is a rare bird at Little Marlow and pretty scarce in the county - I remember missing a bird at the pit about 10 years ago in August when I first moved here and it was yet to be my local patch.