Wigeon on the up

30th September - A small influx of Wigeon saw 22 birds present this morning, along with 12 Shoveler and 4 Gadwall.  No waders apart from Lapwing and Snipe - I found 9 of the latter creeping about in the longer vegetation, which may well have been hiding some more.

Best of the gulls was an adult YL Gull, which is probably the regular bird seen over the past month or so.

Spare half hour

29th September - I had a spare half hour or so just before lunch so popped into the pit.  Quite a fresh north easterly was blowing, but nothing of note had been pushed in and the juvenile Ringed Plover also seems to have departed.  Best bird was this obliging 1st winter YL Gull on the near spit.

Marsh Tick!

27th September - I've made a few brief visits this week pre and post work.  The juvenile Black Tern hung on for its 14th day until Tuesday 24th but was not seen after this.  It must be some sort of long staying record I would have thought.  The juvenile Ringed Plover which turned up on the 18th is still here - based on the breast band, this bird is different to the 2 which were here briefly on the 17th.  Poor record below

 

Wildfowl are building gradually, with 18 Shoveler noted yesterday, though just 3 Wigeon.  The odd Pintail may pass through soon, but none have been seen yet.

 

The past two evenings I have dropped in just before dusk and the gull roost is building, with getting on for 1,000 BHG, 100+ LBBG and 50+ Herring Gulls.  The single adult YL Gull has been seen on both nights and yesterday an adult GBBG was my first of the season.

 

This morning, apart from the Ringed Plover, not much to write home about.  I wondered around to the southern bank and back and noted a small passage of Skylarks and Meadow Pipits, a single Reed Bunting flying over calling was also a probable migrant.  On my way back up the western bank by the base of the viewpoint, I suddenly heard a very vocal Marsh Tit moving around in the trees.  I managed to get it in my bins briefly before it moved off  northwards with a tit flock and was last heard near the cottages.  This is a patch tick, so well pleased and a bird not often seen here, though they can't be too far away - I certainly get them in my garden.

 

Last Tuesday, as I was leaving, a mother and 2 well grown young Roe Deer appeared on the base of the spit and started grazing, so I took a record of the mother.  Roe Deer are seen on and off throughout the year, including a Buck, but more often than not they are around in the morning and evenings when the light is poor, so it was nice to see them in the midday sunshine.

 

 



Tern number 4

23 September - I had spent the morning in west Berkshire watching a delightful juvenile Red-backed Shrike - a long overdue county tick.  Making my way back eastwards by early afternoon, I had time to pop into the patch before picking the kids up from school.  It was overcast with a hint of rain in the air and as I walked in along the west bank as usual, a tern flew right next to me up the north-west arm. I was amazed to see that it was a juvenile Arctic, my fourth species of tern here this month.  It was giving lovely close views and favoured the western side, which is the closest for easy viewing - more often than not, these terns are over the larger body of water on the eastern side.  I made my way to the viewpoint hoping that it might land on the spit so that I could get a digiscope image.  Once here, it was apparent that there were actually 2 juvenile Arctic Terns, often in close proximity, though only one bird seemed to venture up the north-west arm.  Both birds had fully black small bills, but one was slightly longer than the other.  Neither made any attempt to land, so I resorted to taking hand held shots as the first bird made sorties past the view point - not great, but you can see most features, including the plain white secondaries, lacking any dark bar that juvenile Common shows.  You can also see the translucent primaries on the far wing of the first photo.

Funnily enough, an adult and 2 juvenile Common Terns had been frequenting the lake on and off over the past fortnight and when an adult Common Tern appeared over the far side as I was leaving, I had a brief moment of doubt, but it didn't last long!

The juvenile Black Tern was still present, often flying with the Arctics and the juvenile Ringed Plover also remained.

7 Up

17th September - well the juvenile Black Tern is now on its 7th day, so despite initial signs of moving on, it obviously likes it here.

The only other birds of note were seen today in the early afternoon when 2 Ringed Plover flew in during rain.  They both looked like juveniles and after landing on the spit for a few minutes quickly departed.

The regular adult YL Gull is still being seen daily and a Common Sand is still around along with a couple of Snipe.

Today, a walk around the lake found numerous Chiffchaffs - at least 15 and a few Blackcaps, whilst yesterday and in slightly lesser numbers today, hirundines were over the lake in force.  Yesterday saw an estimated 100 Sand Martins, the first large count I have seen this Autumn, similar numbers of House Martins and 200 Swallows.  A couple of Dabchick were also a nice addition - possibly new birds or maybe a new one joining the fairly regular singleton.

Black Tern Stays

14th September - well despite it looking decidedly unsettled on arrival on Wednesday, the juvenile Black Tern is still present for its 4th day this morning.  On Thursday, it was settling occasionally on a piece of wood, so I grabbed this record:

I narrowly missed a passing Ruff on Thursday that was seen late morning but was not there at 12:30pm - a record shot shows what looks like a nice moulting adult male, posted here. The only other waders at the moment are a long staying Common Sand and the odd Snipe.

This morning, the 3 regular Common Terns, an adult and 2 juvs that have been present on and off for a couple of weeks were flying around with the Black Tern.  Also on the spit was a juvenile Yellow-legged Gull - a different individual to the one seen a few times a week or so ago.

Amongst other features, the many moulted scaps and dark centred pale fringed tertials help to ID this bird.

There were lots of Swallows and House Martins low over the lake too in the mizzly conditions, probably 3-400 birds equally mixed, but very few Sand Martins.  I also took another shot of the regular Black Swan family - the juvenile now pretty well full grown.

.......deserves another!

11th September - I made another early afternoon visit vaguely hopeful that a skua might fly over, as some had been reported flying over London.  However, on arrival, it was fairly obvious that not much was happening.  After a quick scan of the usual birds, I settled into watching fly over birds.  Shortly after 1pm, I noticed a small, darkish looking tern flying in high from the north over the north-eastern side.  A quick look through the scope confirmed my suspicions that it was a juvenile Black Tern.  It never looked particularly settled and was often flying higher than the surrounding trees doing a bit of mid-air preening and also ranging quite a way outside the pit.  However, it also came down the lake to surface feed on several occasions.  It landed on the end of the spit for about 5 minutes enabling me to grab some record shots:

So, although looking like it was going to leave any minute, it stayed at least 2 hours whilst I was there and was still present at 3:10pm when I left.

A quick pre-work visit in the morning found the semi-regular 3 Common Terns, an adult and 2 juveniles.  They are often not at the lake though, so I wonder if they visit the river or nearby pits.  5 Shoveler was a slight increase on previous days.