SUNDAY 30
MARCH
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version -
A return to much warmer weather as a ridge
of high pressure intensifies over Southern Britain. In fact, this was the
warmest day of the year so far with temperatures reaching 18 degrees C during
the afternoon
Undoubted highlight of the day was a PIED
AVOCET that graced TYTTENHANGER MAIN PIT from mid morning 'til dusk - the third
individual in that area this year. It was favouring the sandy spit and shallows
thereabouts and was discovered shortly after a flock of Pintails and 2 Mandarin
Ducks had passed through. I connected with the bird at 1650 hours, along with a
few Common Snipe, 2 Lapwing, 5 Common Teal and 9 SAND MARTINS.
An adult Little Gull that moved from Weston
Turville Reservoir to WILSTONE RESERVOIR at 10am was still there when I left
Tyttenhanger (per Steve Rodwell) but when Ian Williams, David Bilcock and I
arrived 40 minutes later, it had disappeared.....
WILSTONE proffered 7 Little Grebe (all
together in one tightly knit flock), 7 Mute Swan, 34 Greylag Geese, 8 Shoveler,
2 Gadwall, drake Wigeon, 96 Tufted Duck, 52 Coot, 7 Pochard and a Stock Dove
while a pair of Little Egrets was nesting again along the Drayton
Bank.
STARTOP'S END yielded 28 Black-headed Gulls
but no Little Gull, 3 Mute Swans (including a first-summer), 66 Tufted Duck, 16
Coot and 4 Great Crested Grebe, with Greenfinch, 4 Common Blackbird, 6 Common
Starling, a Common Kestrel and 2 Pied Wagtails around the
periphery.
A fair bit of activity over at TRINGFORD
RESERVOIR with the Great Crested Grebe pair, Mute Swan pair and Red-crested
Pochard pair, drake Teal, 28 Tufted Duck and 10 Coot, 3 singing male Common
Chiffchaff and a party of 35 SAND MARTIN. The Rookery was at full speed with no
less than 32 active nests this year, the woodland also supporting 3 Goldfinch, 6
Robin, 9 Wren, 3 male Dunnock, 2 Song Thrush, Mistle Thrush and 70
Jackdaw.
I stopped off at WESTON TURVILLE RESERVOIR
at dusk, just in case the Little Gull had flown back, but there was pretty much
nothing - 2 Great Crested Grebe, 2 Mute Swan, 8 Coot and 2 Moorhen.
MONDAY 31
MARCH
The last day of March was another very warm
one with temperatures once again reaching 18 degrees C and Saharan dust even
making the Chilterns. It proved to be an excellent day for rare passage
waders.....
After counting 15 active nests in OLD
WOLVERTON ROOKERY, my first visit of the day was to MANOR FARM WORKINGS in OLD
WOLVERTON, where both the transitional plumaged SPOTTED REDSHANK and
winter-plumaged GREY PLOVER were still present, albeit rather distantly (see pix
below). This chain of gravel workings really are looking superb this spring and
should yield some excellent results, today's wader haul including Oystercatcher
(pair), Lapwing (22), Ringed Plover, LITTLE RINGED PLOVER (4), GREEN SANDPIPER
and Common Redshank (4). Also present were a splendid pair of GOOSANDER, 3
lingering Wigeon, 8 Teal, 2 Shoveler, 28 Tufted Duck, 2 Mute Swan and 2 Great
Crested Grebe, as well as a first-summer Common Gull, Green Woodpecker and a
Peacock butterfly.
More Rook counting followed with 5 active
nests by the CHILDS WAY ROUNDABOUT, M1 JUNCTION 14 and 105 at SALFORD and a
further 67 at MEADOW LANE (BEDS).
Once in CAMBRIDGESHIRE, Brimstone
butterflies became apparent, with 3 along a short stretch of the A428 just east
of ST NEOTS and active Rookeries including 8 nests at WINTRINGHAM HALL, 19 at
ELTISLEY MANOR, 35 close to the ABBOTSLEY ROAD JUNCTION and 13 just east of
CROXTON; a further 4 were by the A14 at FENSTANTON.
FENDRAYTON GP as I once knew them
were barely recognisable from the changes undertaken in the last 3 years by the
RSPB, the reserve being so extensive and large now that you need either a
bicycle or a taxi to get round!! I parked up at the entrance and walked the
muddy mile distance to the Couch Hide overlooking the westernmost MOORE LAKE
where within seconds I had espied the breeding-plumaged drake BAIKAL TEAL that
had been gracing the site since early in the month. It was very loosely
associating with Wigeon and Teal but largely kept to itself, feeding at the west
end of the lake. Not sure of its merits as a genuine vagrant from the Orient but
certainly as good as the majority of recent drakes in Britain, including those
in Essex and Oxon. This is now one superb reserve, full of potential and birds -
highlights of my visit today including a dapper drake SMEW (displaying to some
of the 28 Common Goldeneye present), 3 GARGANEY (2 drakes and a female), a
LITTLE RINGED PLOVER, single Black-tailed Godwit and a party of 9 LITTLE GULLS
(including 2 first-years).
An impressive list of species included Great
Crested Grebe (12), Little Grebe (3), Sinensis Cormorant (28 nests), Grey Heron,
Mute Swan (4), both Greylag & Canada Geese, Common Shelduck (pair), Egyptian
Goose (pair), Wigeon (28), Gadwall (42), Teal (70), Shoveler (20), Tufted Duck,
Pochard, Coot, Moorhen, Oystercatcher (pair), Lapwing, Common Snipe (25), Common
Redshank (6), Black-headed, Common and Lesser Black-backed Gulls, Jay, Reed
Bunting, 8 Cetti's Warblers, 9 singing Common Chiffchaffs and 3 singing male
Blackcaps. A Fox was also seen as well as a dead American Mink on the
tramway.
Driving back down the A10 in Hertfordshire,
Rookeries in HARSTON yielded 27 active nests and SHEPRETH POPLARS 43, while a
Red Kite was seen over HAMELS PARK.
I finished my day off with a visit to AMWELL
NATURE RESERVE where it was a full house at GREAT HARDMEAD LAKE to see the
SPOTTED REDSHANK that had arrived mid-morning. All the hard hitters were there
including Ron Cousins, Barry Reed, Graham White, Mike Ilett, Paul Hackett and
Jason Ward and the bird put in an outstanding performance, commuting between the
new cut up towards the hides and the shallow vegetation in front of the
watchpoint.
In addition to the 'Spot-shank' were 22
Wigeon, 8 Gadwall, 12 Teal, 8 Shoveler, 10 Pochard, 3 Goldeneye (1 drake), 2
Redhank, Common Snipe and 2+ Little Egret, with a Marsh Tit scolding from the
woodland on the opposite side of the canal
