A Tale of Three Roosts

Roost One. I went to Sawbridgeworth Marsh on Saturday where Mike was already present. Its been quiet recently, and today was no different, but we had some good variety. A couple of Sparrowhawks, a Common Buzzard, more Fieldfares than of late - there seems to have been an influx - a good number of Stock Doves, and the usual Woodpeckers, Corvids, and Buntings.

Roost Two. D#4 had a bowling party in Bishops Stortford on Sunday, so whilst he was there myself and D#1, D#2 went round Hatfield Forest Lake. there were three Pochard, and small numbers of Gadwall, Shoveler, Mallard, Teal, and Tufted Duck. Finaly, we caught up with Graeme's Tawny Owl. Graeme found one last winter at the North end of the lake, and its taken to roosting there during the day again this winter. Its a while since I've seen one in daylight, and its rich reddish brown feathers stood out well.


Roost Three. This blog will be going back to its winter roost for a few weeks while the short daylight hours and family stuff squeeze out birding trips. Fingers crossed there may be the odd day-trip or visit to Weymouth, in which case I'll post.

Frozen Out

Took my first walk of the year round SLRS and South Sawbridgeworth today. The scrape and much of the river were frozen solid, and the ground was frozen underfoot too. I got the impression the birds are suffering. there were no large flocks of any birds; I saw two flocks of Long-tailed tits but they mustered only 7 birds between them, and the flock of 50 mixed buntings and finches at Feakes Lock pre-Christmas has shrunk to a handful of birds. The only large total was a record number of Cormorants (10) which I assume is because they are having trouble finding open water elsewhere.


Ten - a record.



The full total, for posterity.

Cormorant 10 in a couple of trees in Pishiobury Park
Mute swan 2ad 1 juv by Sheering Lock
Mallard 5N, 2 on river
Kestrel 1
Moorhen 4
Lapwing 3SE over
BHG c30
Common Gull 1 juv
LBBG 1 ad
Stock Dove 1
Wood Pigeon c100 in total
Collared Dove 3
Green Wood 1h
GSW1h
Wren 2
Dunock 6
Robin 1
Blackbird 6
Fieldfare 7
Song thrush 4
Miste thrush 1
Goldcrest 3
LT Tit 7
Blue tit 8
Great tit 5
Magpie 8
Jackdaw 7
Crow 5
Starling 1
Chaffinch 6
Greenfinch 3
Goldfinch 4
Bullfinch 6
Yellowhammer 5

Herts Twitching

A Great Grey Shrike has turned up in Cuffley. Its half an hour away, so with D#4's football being cancelled due to a frozen pitch I sneaked off to see it.

As this was the first Saturday it was available the twitch was well attended. The bird has taken up residence in some bushes and trees round the railway embankment, and didn't show particularly well when I was there. Nevertheless we got some reasonable views, and had the usual pleasant birding chat with the assembled locals.

It was too far away for a photo, unlike a Little Owl on my way back. One flew into a tree at High Wych as I was driving past, so I quickly pulled in to the school entrance opposite, grabbed the camera and clicked away. I crossed the road to get closer but it disappeared. The habitat is ideal for Little Owl, so I may be back to look again at a later date.

Local Waxwings

At last some local waxwings, hiding amongst the packed housing estates of Bishop's Stortford. I got the e-mail with directions and immediately left. The 10 birds were being flighty and difficult, and eventually flew off just as Tony arrived. Fingers crossed they will be re-found later.

Edit:
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Returned pm when they were happier to feed on the white Rowan berries - got a few more shots from the van, although on occasion the birds were too close!

Scaupish

Went to Amwell first thing this morning. Freezing cold, and mainly ice-bound with just a few open spots all crammed with wildlife.

I thought I had a male Scaup, but something wasn’t quite right; mainly the bloke next to me saying that a hybrid had been seen in the area recently. It didn’t have that “Pochard in Tufted Clothing” appearance, and the head seemed to have an abruptness at the back of the crown. Further correspondence on the Herts Yahoo group suggested a Tufted/Pochard cross that had a Lesser Scaup appearance. That fitted, so not even a bit if Scaup in it. Just Scaupish.

I always feel slightly sick with envy walking round Amwell. Lots of really good habitat of all kinds. Over in the Stort Valley we don’t have anything like the range and variety of habitat, particularly the amount of open water. There was lots of quite good stuff. Numbers of dabbling duck, a Red-Crested Pochard, several Goldeneye, a Water Rail out in the open, a Stonechat, a Kingfisher, a party of Siskin, and even a Fox out on the ice. The site speciality - Smew - was missing.

But today Hatfield Forest Lake was the place to be for the diligent few (so not me); two Bewick’s Swans turned up. Photos are on the Stort Valley Wild site, and we await the results of the inquiry on the rings on the legs.

New Year 2009 - Rainham Marsh RSPB

I ventured deeep into enemy territory today, drifting incognito amongst The Gentleman Birders of Essex.

Star birds were the two Penduline Tits. If only all birds were as confiding as these two. They moved around the north part of the reserve, but were happy to feed in the open in front of massed ranks of birders. A lifer for me, I was expecting something like a masked Bearded tit, but they were more Great Tit or finch like in general shape and demeanour to my eyes. Here's the best I could do with the hand-held lens plus converter.




Otherwise I underperformed against the list in the centre;no SEO, Peregrine or Water Pipit, and the Serin hadn't been seen when I left. Nevertheless, in the Reeds there were Chiffchaff, Goldcrest, calling Cetti's Warbler and Water Rail, and a Kingfisher. On Aveley Lagoon there was about 20 Pintail, a Golden Plover, a Snipe, and lots of Lapwing, Wigeon, Gadwall and Shoveler.

On the marsh were Reed Bunting, 4 pairs of Stonechat, Meadow Pipits and Pied Wagtail, and on the foreshore were 3 Black-Tailed Godwits, about 10 Redshank, some Dunlin, Teal, Shelduck, and some dabbling ducks from the reserve. Around the centre were Goldfinch in number and various other typical garden birds. so a good start to 2009.


There's lots of work still going on out on the reserve. Much of it to do with chldren and education, but no doubt some of it will produce more good birds.

Sawbridgeworth Marsh roost Dec 30th

I called in at Sawbridgeworth Marsh at 3pm for the roost.

I’d been here earlier in December with Mike, and courtesy of his superior skills had an excellent set of birds including 2 Water Rail, 1 Woodcock, 1 Lesser Spotted Woodpecker, 23 Fieldfare, 6 Bullfinch, and 43 Reed Bunting.

Today I was on my todd. Without Mike's expertise I had to do a certain amount of guesswork with distant corvids and small silhouettes in the gloom that gave one brief call and then diver into cover. Nevertheless I clocked up the following.

Woodpigeon c250 rough count
Redwing 3 N
Greenfinch 5SW, 9 NE
Cormorant 2 (1 ad with a missing primary on right wing, 1 juv N)
Kestrel 1
Magpie 2N
Bullfinch 2 calling
Corvids - mainly Jackdaw I think 173S
Starling 5W
Snipe 3E high - probably disturbed from somewhere and trying to find a roost.
Green Woodpecker 2
Yellowhammer 5E
Mallard 4N
Reed Bunting 14 in
Meadow Pipit 12 in
Lapwing 35 NW
Water Rail 2 heard
Blackbird roost calling.
Fieldfare 6 in
Carrion Crow 5 in.

The Reed Buntings call once and then dive in from a height. They arrive over a period and drift in individually or in small numbers. In contrast the Meadow Pipits fly around for a while, as if unable to find the exact ideal spot, and then drop in. It seems strange that when faced with the same apparently identical problem of how to get into a roost these two birds should adopt such different strategies.

Weymouth in mid-winter

A brief hiatus in the mid-winter rush. We were down at Weymouth for a couple of days, but with one thing and another I didn’t get to see any birds. Instead we went for a freezing walk on Britain’s best beach.

Apart from the usual shells and weed, the beach was littered with what I assume were sea squirts; semi-translucent rubber-like things about a couple of inches long that if you trod on them sent a jet of water out the end. The first time I’ve seen this on the beach, and presumably was a result of the stiff SE wind of recent days.




There were about 50 Carrion Crows searching for scraps along the beach too.

Winter Hibernation

I'm sending the blog into hibernation for the winter, with possibly a brief flurry of activity around Christmas.

There's no point in blogging unless you're going to do it regularly, and I'm simply not doing enough to maintain a flow of worthwhile entries at the moment.

This weekend was a case in point. There's a Rough-Legged Buzzard just up the A10. There's Serins and more at Rainham. And with the cold weather coming, a trip to Amwell for the gull roost could have been profitable.

So, how did it go?

9:am. D#1 has a maths course in Hatfield. Long-tailed tits round the house! That's an hour round trip to drop her off ( a few Redwings from the car).
Then D#4 plays football at the local club from 10:30 - 11:30 (well, he runs round after other children playing football to be more accurate). I spend a pleasant hour freezing my **** off and chewing the fat with other dads. Mistle thrush and a few BHGs.
Back to Hatfield to pick up D#1. Back at 1:15om, a quick sandwich then off to the British Museum with D#3 and D#1. D#3 has been doing Egyptians and wants to see the Mummies. The British Museum is just about my favourite (indoor) place in the UK, and we have a great time looking at the statues, hieroglyphics, and mummies. "Look - that writing is different to the other writing" I say, pointing to some inscription at the top of a piece of stone. "That's because it's a Pharoah's name daddy" says D#3. Ah. I'll shut up then.
5pm. Back to Sawbo in the dark.

Sunday isn't any better. 10:15 - drop D#1 for a swimming lesson. Starlings round the building. Then take D#2 for his lesson. Have a swim myself! Then home by 12. Off to the supermarket as I haven't yet been this weekend (see above). Dinner, and then its 3 o'clock. I could do the roost at Sawbo Marsh, but there's some stuff to do round the house to do with Kids bedrooms, and then its dark.

Realistically, that's how its going to be for the forseeable future. After Easter I'll be able to get out at the start and end of the day, and with luck see a few things.

So, apart from a brief hello at Christmas, that's it until the days lengthen again.

Until then, keep warm, and may the God of Birding litter your path with rarities!

Atlas count

Did a new square for the timed atlas count - and its the square with SLRS. Same old same old, but a Grey Wagtail was overdue for the patch this year.

The strangest thing was a couple of Bats. I thought they were Snipe at first, but once the binoculars were on the truth was out. They were bigger than Pipistrelles, and a golden brown, so I'm guessing Noctule.

This is the first time I've had proper views of a decent size bat through binoculars in daylight. And what a weird thing it is - like watching a hamster fly. It seems to be against nature for animals to be cruising around up in the sky.

SLRS Nov 8

There’s been some good birds in the area in the last few days; Great White Egret, Woodlark, but those birds were seen by proper birders who put a lot of hours in, not someone who strolls occasionally round their local patch with their eyes closed.

The scrape was full, and had just two ducks; a female Gadwall and a female Teal. A snipe flew over, and some BH Gulls were around. The solitary Lapwing was joined by a flock of 30.


A flock of 20 Skylarks flew over, then a few Meadow Pipits in the rough grass. Over by Feakes Lock there was the same flock of Buntings and finches that had been there a few weeks previously. I’d guess 20 Yellowhammers, 2 Reed Buntings, 20 Chaffinch, a few Goldfinches, some Dunnocks going mental, a Song Thrush, a Goldcrest, and a continual presence of Redwings.


The Cormorant tree, with a Cormorant.


If you look carefully, you can see the smoke from breakfast being cooked.