THURSDAY 15 JANUARY
The day started fine and dry, with
long clear spells and winter sunshine. It then clouded over from the Northwest
with the wind increasing....
A day of TARGET BIRDING with my first visit
to HOGBACK WOOD in BEACONSFIELD, where a single FIRECREST is wintering as usual.
It took a long time to locate but was eventually pinned down to the Holly clump
just as you enter the woodland and the Leylandii and conifer trees in
Woodfield Road adjacent. It was associating with a single Goldcrest. Also noted
were 2 Ring-necked Parakeets, both Green & Great Spotted Woodpecker,
Nuthatch, Song Thrush (singing male), 10 Blue Tit, 6 Great Tit, Coal Tit, Jay, 2
Common Magpie, Red Kite and a flyover Greenfinch.
Moving on to CASTLEMAN'S FARM, to the south
of Beaconsfield, EGYPTIAN GEESE numbered 98 in the chicken fields, with 15+ Red
Kite in the area and 4 Moorhen and a Pied Wagtail.
At BURNHAM BEECHES NNR, a total of 11
MANDARIN DUCK was present on the Upper Pond (6 drakes), with Red Kite, Great
Spotted Woodpecker, Jay and a singing Coal Tit also encountered. Not too far
away at BLACK PARK COUNTRY PARK LAKE, a further 21 MANDARIN DUCK were counted -
11 drakes in this colony. The lake also held 2 Mute Swan, 4 Atlantic Canada
Geese, 6 Mallard, 17 Tufted Duck, 3 Northern Pochard, 4 Moorhen and 26 Coot,
with Nuthatch, Coal Tit and up to 8 Great Tits feeding around the periphery of
the car park.
Despite being so windy, I managed to still
locate most of the long-staying 'rares' on STAINES RESERVOIRS' NORTH BASIN,
including the juvenile GREAT NORTHERN DIVER, 3 BLACK-NECKED GREBES and WATER
PIPIT, whilst 249 Tufted Duck (mostly drake) were impressive, 24 Common
Goldeneye, a drake Shoveler, 125 Wigeon and Green Woodpecker all noted
too.
In the CHESS VALLEY, a single Little Egret
was roosting east of CHENIES BOTTOM BRIDGE, with 2 more on one of the ditches
south of CHURCH COVERT. The LITTLE OWL pair were enjoying the afternoon sun on
the usual pollarded Willow tree, with an adult Argenteus Herring Gull
resting on LATIMER GREAT WATER being a rare visitor there (unusual numbers have
recently been roosting at Stocker's Lake, Rickmansworth). Fifteen days into the
New Year, I was very pleased to finally connect with a MISTLE THRUSH - LATIMER
PLACE virtually a guaranteed stakeout for this species.
Last off I visited the roost at PENN WOOD
SSSI but in very windy conditions it was very poor. Just a single BRAMBLING
roosted in the Penna Rhododendrons (along with 55 Chaffinches), with a further
20 Chaffinches in a 'new' roost in Rhododendrons at the east end of the wood.
Otherwise, just Red Kite, Goldcrest and Coal Tit logged, with the nearby roost
wood yielding 23 of the former.
