CURLEW pair showing - LGRE Diary Notes for Saturday

SATURDAY 13 MARCH

A beautiful day, with temperatures reaching 9.5 degrees C. Spent the entire day in Buckinghamshire, attempting to clean up on a few species I was still missing from the year, with a few brief forays in to Herts during the morning.

FLEET MARSTON, WEST OF AYLESBURY (BUCKS)

Last winter's owl fields north of the A41 all now completely ploughed but RED KITES (4+) still in area.

WADDESDON PARK (BUCKS)

Just east of Waddesdon and in trees south of the A41, 12 active Rook nests at SP 754 167.

GALLOWSBRIDGE FARM/RIVER RAY MEADOWS (BUCKS)

After much searching, eventually located a pair of EURASIAN CURLEW, showing very well on the new reserve pools west of the Edgcott road at SP 670 198 (my first of the year). There were also 8 Common Teal nearby.

At the west end of Grendon Underwood village, 13 House Sparrows were present by the farm buildings at SP 676 209. There were several RED KITES between here and Calvert.

CALVERT BBOWT LAKE

Very quiet, with the only bird of note being the drake leucistic Gadwall (photographed by Tim Watts above). There were 4 Gadwall in total, 2 Great Crested Grebes and 25 Tufted Ducks, whilst migrant Lesser Black-backed Gulls included 1,297 (mainly full breeding-plumaged adults).

GAWCOTT (BUCKS)

Just south of Gawcott in trees by Spinney Farmhouse, 38 more active Rook nests (SP 685 314)

FOXCOTE RESERVOIR (NORTH BUCKS)

A further 9 active Rook nests in Wellmore, Maids Moreton (SP 709 352)

(1530-1600 hours) Checking the main reservoir with Dave Horton, I eventually located the adult drake RING-NECKED DUCK in with Northern Pochard and Tufted Duck in the extreme NW corner visible only from the far end of the dam at SP 707 367. It was moving in and out of the reeds and was distant.

Otherwise, 4 Great Crested Grebes, 1 Mute Swan, 18 Northern Pochard, 83 Tufted Duck and 8 COMMON GOLDENEYE (4 adult drakes) present.

Not that far away, at Cranley Oak, and in trees south of the A422, 33 active Rook nests.

Leucistic Gadwall

Leucistic drake Gadwall- Calvert BBOWT lake- 11/3/10

Very uncommon/rare form that turned up on the reserve last week. All pictures taken from 1st hide, closer ones when it was in shallows and distant one shows just how much lighter it is compared to standard Gadwall roosting in reeds (Tim Watts)

First record for Hillesden

Hillesden; pair of Red crested Pochard on middle pool was an unexpected first record for the site/ 2 Oycs/ c 60 Golden Plover/20 Lapwing

Calvert; male Goldeneye/ good large gull pre-roost but no unusual ones spotted (Tim Watts),

Spring is in the air

Calvert; various birds singing and Moorhen building nest; 18 Mute Swans in cabbage field to Nrth of Calvert

Hillesden; 30 Common Teal ( record count here)/ 13 Gadwall/Skylarks singing/ 12 Lapwing with one in partial display flight/ c100 Greylag geese./ 9 Golden Plover flew over calling. My idea of putting overflow pipe into main pool now in progress, theory being it drops the main pool a bit and the overflow spreads via pipework to lower level creating a wet grass area. Also asked for stoney islands to be cleared of weeds ready for the arrival of waders, site with it's new scrapes looks superb.

Grendon Underwood layby; Next to new BBOWT reserve there were c 600 Golden Plover/c 600 Lapwing/c1,000 Starling all wheeling in air (Tim Watts)

First ICELAND GULL of 2010

An immature ICELAND GULL has joined the juvenile GLAUCOUS GULL in the Calvert roost since Saturday (Warren Claydon, Tim Watts).

GLAUC still present

The juvenile GLAUCOUS GULL roosted this evening (per Tim Watts)

A 'new' CASPIAN GULL

This smart first-winter CASPIAN GULL was photographed on Calvert Landfill on 7 February (Tim Watts)