TUESDAY 30 NOVEMBER
With the wind veering to the east and Northeast, the first snow of the winter arrived overnight depositing a light covering over South Buckinghamshire and up to four centimetres in North Bucks and Bedfordshire. It was bitterly cold as the wind freshened and as darkness fell, temperatures plunged below freezing again.
The highlight of my day was an exceptional wintering flock of TREE SPARROWS in North Bucks - my largest flock in many years
SHARDELOES LAKE (SOUTH BUCKS)
Almost completely frozen over with 3 Little Grebes, 5 Mute Swans and 69 Coots remaining and 7 adult Common Gulls and a 4th-winter Argenteus Herring Gull resting on the ice and a single Fieldfare in the bushes.
WOBURN (BEDFORDSHIRE)
Barry Nightingale had seen 105 WAXWINGS at 0800 hours but when I visited around midday, just 29 were feeding on the Pink Rowans along Leighton Street.
CALDECOTTE LAKES (NORTH BUCKS)
The female SMEW discovered on Sunday was still present, diving with Tufted Ducks on the east shore of the North Lake. On the opposite side of the dual carriageway, on the South Lake, a pair of COMMON SHELDUCK were noted, along with 33 Great Crested Grebes and good numbers of dabbling duck.
DAIRY FARM, LITTLE LINFORD (NORTH BUCKS) (SP 837 457)
(Access road very snowy - utmost care required)
Following up some information kindly supplied by Rob Hill, a strip of maize crop and its adjoining clump of conifers and thick hawthorn scrub yielded an incredible 130 TREE SPARROWS - my largest local gathering of this species for at least ten years. They were all chipping away together and making a loud racket and keeping to one core mass. There were also a lot of Yellowhammer, Reed Bunting and Chaffinch with them, whilst 2 MARSH TITS were in the hedgerow.
FOXCOTE RESERVOIR (NORTH BUCKINGHAMSHIRE)
I had to park in Maids Moreton village as the roads around Foxcote were treacherous and incredibly icy - cars were strewn everywhere having collided with one another or slithered off of the road.
When I finally reached the hide, there was one wide sweep of open water that had escaped the ice. Sat on the ice at the entrance to the NW arm were the 4 BEWICK'S SWANS (three adults and a single juvenile) that Paul had found about an hour earlier and Francis had seen. The adult drake RING-NECKED DUCK was also present - showing very well for a change - and wide awake - and diving in front of the hide.
The cold weather had also seen a massive influx of wildfowl on the reservoir with 44 Mute Swans, 516 Eurasian Wigeon, 43 Common Teal, 15 Gadwall, a drake PINTAIL, 32 Tufted Duck, 17 Northern Pochard and 8 Common Goldeneye (4 drakes) present, as well as 8 Great Crested Grebes and an adult pair of GOOSANDER. A single DUNLIN was standing on the ice by the tern raft.
The hedgerows bordering the road between the village and the access gate held 25 Redwings and a party of 6 nominate BULLFINCHES.
BROGBOROUGH LAKE (BEDFORDSHIRE)
My last port of call was an ice-free Brogborough Lake where the GREAT NORTHERN DIVER was still present, as well as the 7 adult RED-CRESTED POCHARDS that MJP counted earlier (5 drakes and two females). There were also 16 Great Crested Grebes, 11 Mute Swans, a single Little Grebe, 22 Pochard, 7 Shoveler, 1 Wigeon and 34 Common Goldeneyes.
This is an account of the personal observations of Lee G R Evans (LGRE) in his home county of Buckinghamshire. It also hosts all sightings of interest within the county but only those considered authentic by the author. I am extremely grateful for any images of local birds as well as of any information relating to birds within the boundaries - contact me anytime on 07881 906629 or email LGREUK400@aol.com.