WEDNESDAY 21 JANUARY 2009
Another light frost followed by a gloriously clear, sunny day, with virtually no wind.
CHESHAM SEWAGE WORKS
A rather forlorn-looking LITTLE EGRET was stood within the sewage work compound
CHESHAM FISHING LAKES (SP 972 003)
GREAT CRESTED GREBE (1)
Tufted Duck (6)
Pochard (16)
Coot (33)
Black-headed Gull (35)
*COMMON KINGFISHER (showing very well on adjacent brook)
Great Tit (2 males in full song)
CENTRAL CHESHAM
COAL TIT in song (with another in my garden)
WHELPLEY ASH FARM
In fields south of Chesham Road (the B4505) (at TQ 002 032), a flock of 21 LAPWING and 26 EUROPEAN GOLDEN PLOVERS was noted (earlier on Graham Smith had counted 45 of the latter further west along the road in Orchard Leigh). At Lye Green, a Eurasian Sparrowhawk flew across Rushmere Lane
PEDNORMEAD END (SU 953 013)
A tributary of the River Chess just west of Chesham (north of the B 485) yielded a pair of Mute Swans, 2 Grey Herons and 10 Moorhens. Missenden Road also produced 2 RED KITES.
SE AYLESBURY: 2 RED KITES over suburbia, with the resident pair of PEREGRINES roosting on the SE corner of the Council Offices (per Mike Collard)
CALVERT BBOWT
After speaking to Tim Watts early afternoon, the excitement of FOUR different EURASIAN BITTERNS was too much, and listening to Tim's exultation and vivid descriptions of the birds really left me with a lot of expectation. I even invited Mike Collard along.
And so it was......arriving at 1308 hours, I joined Tim, Gareth Leese and Nick Foxton in the Crispin Fisher Hide and waited. Tim and the others had literally just obtained fabulous views of two birds 'displaying' to each other but they had just moved out of view as I walked in. Tim's description was 'mouth-watering'. In fact, he kept rubbing in exactly where all four different birds were and their approximate positioning in the well separated reedbeds. Anyway, I waited and waited, and within a short time, 'lucky' Mike Collard arrived, as well as Badger-watcher Bernard, who had never seen a live Bittern in Britain.......and still hasn't.
Anyway, nearly two hours later, I eventually set eyes on the usual BITTERN (thanks Gareth), 'licking his bill' after consuming a meal, in the reedbed to the left of the hide just feet left of the obvious bush. Bits of him showed well, particularly the crown and eye, and as the afternoon progressed, he too flew and disappeared into the bay to the left (the same place probably all four had). None of the other three put in an appearance unfortunately and I left for pastures new. Better luck tomorrow maybe !
During the three hours I sat in the hide, the gull roost gathered pace, with some 515+ Lesser Black-backed Gulls dropping in for a wash and brush-up, 138 Herring Gulls (still predominantly Scandinavian) and just 6 Great Black-backed Gulls (all first and second winters). YELLOW-LEGGED GULLS numbered 7 adults, all in full breeding plumage.
A WATER RAIL flew across the cut-reeds in front of the hide (where a single COMMON SNIPE was day-roosting), with 2 Great Crested Grebes, a single Little Grebe, 11 Cormorants, 2 Greylag Geese and 35 Tufted Ducks counted. A Common Buzzard sat in trees left of the hide briefly and a Grey Wagtail flew by.
On CALVERT LANDFILL, 13 RED KITES or more were in attendance, 5 of them fighting over a bag of rubbish at one stage, whilst the Common Starling flock was still well over 800.
BROUGHTON TROUT POOLS
At long, long last, I finally added JACK SNIPE to the 'Bucks Year List' with two seen. A flock of 18 Eurasian Wigeon were feeding on the unfrozen SW corner of the pool at SP 845 143.