Grafham Water 27 January 2013

In a fresh south-westerlies, covered most of the res. for four hours this afternoon until dusk for the gull roost...

Great Northern Diver 1 off the dam early afternoon, 4 Bewicks Swans, Red-breasted Merganser the long staying female/immature off the Yacht Club, an adult female Scaup off the yacht club and a first-winter male Scaup off Valley Creek, an immature Peregrine hunting at dusk, 4 Sanderling and a Dunlin between the Yacht Club and Lagoons, three Turnstones along the Dam and 2 Green Sandpipers.

The only gull of note in the roost was 1 adult Yellow-legged Gull.

Dunlin & 2 Sanderlings 

Birding in the mist 22 January 2013

With temperatures down to -6 degrees centigrade overnight the early morning balcony watch over the Great Ouse at Little Paxton delivered the following sightings: 

The Otter was back working both banks of the river in search of food, a single male Goosander appeared on the river late morning, 2 Golden Plovers flew over SE, a Little Egret flew north along the river, 100+ Fieldfares and 5 Corn Buntings flew over south and the garden feeders were full of variety including some strikingly variable Long-tailed Tits as depicted below which were part of a group of 12 birds. 

I had taken the afternoon off work with the intention of spending all of it at Grafham but no sooner had I got into the car than the mist came down. Undaunted I headed for Grafham Lagoons and spent an hour here with little success except a female Bearded Reedling which called just once came to the top of the reeds and then promptly dropped out of view. Options were now becoming limited due to the visibility so I retreated to Paxton Pits to look for  passerines. An old fashioned large flock of mixed finches and buntings in stubble and weed fields comprised c. 500 Linnets, c.120 Reed Buntings, c.60 Yellowhammers, c.40 Chaffinches and a single Woodlark. c.40 Fieldfares were gorging on any berries that they could find and a flock of c60 Redpolls evaded close scrutiny again. 

The lower bird has very clean ear coverts, limited streaking on the underparts
with a broad white largely unstreakedcrownstripe indicative of race europaeus though
probably also within the range age of variability of race rosaceus. There are three recent
recoveries of race europaeus all ringed in Belgium and controlled in Essex.

The Island - Little Paxton 16-20 January 2013

Having spent most of early to mid January sifting through gull flocks in the area a few days of easy observing from and near home combined with a spell of cold and snowy weather delivered some  interesting sightings...

A redhead Smew flew  north down the Great Ouse on 16th and a Goldeneye spent the same day feeding along a small stretch of the river; a Red Kite flew over north on 18th. A northward movement of 1200+ large Gulls during the morning of the 19th included a single adult Caspian Gull and a female Merlin flew low south over a snow covered Lammas Meadow the same afternoon with nice views of a male Reeve's Muntjac across the river the same day. Best of all, on the 20th an Otter swimming along the river finally offered the photo opportunity from the balcony that I've been waiting for though in poor light and heavy snow; winter thrushes already appear to be quite weak and lethargic and a Marsh Tit visited the feeders for the second time in three days.

Spent three hours in constant snow wandering around Paxton Pits this afternoon (20th) the best sightings in difficult conditions were 1 Bittern in flight over the reedbed at Hayling Pit, 3 Smew (1 drake), good numbers of Linnets and Redpolls though sadly the conditions prevented close scrutiny of the latter and 11 Corn Buntings.

Otter - River Great Ouse, Little Paxton, Cambridgeshire 

Adult female Goldeneye - River Great Ouse, Little Paxton, Cambridgeshire

Male Reeve's Muntjac  - Islands Common, Little Paxton, Cambridgeshire 

Grafham 6 January 2013

A late afternoon visit (1445-1650) to check out what turned out to be a substantial gull roost even by Grafham standards; the best larids for me at least were a single second calendar year Caspian Gull which arrived early enough for distant photos, 2 second calendar year and three adult Yellow-legged Gulls, also 31 Goosanders was a respectable count.

Distant 2cy Caspian Gull - no prizes for photographic artistry 

2cy Caspian Gull with classically pale and in this shot blurred underwings 

Paxton Pits - 23 December 2012

Walked along the western side of the area to Diddington Pit Late afternoon the highlights being a redhead Smew on Island Pit, 4 Goosander over south, 117 Black-tailed Godwits over west with 3 Golden Plover in tow, a single Ruff on Pumphouse Pit, a lone Woodcock at dusk, 1 Chiffchaff and a respectable count of 55 Yellowhammers.

Grafham Water - 17 December 2012

A fairly swift lunchtime visit in bright sunny conditions and mainly covering the west end of the reservoir with a quick look at the dam...

Bewick's Swan 2, Scaup 1 adult female off Marlow, Smew a male and female in Sanctuary Bay, Goosander 18, Red-breasted Merganser 1 in Savages Creek, Great Northern Diver 1 in Sanctuary Bay, Little Egret 21,  Green Sandpiper 1, Common Sandpiper 1 Marlow area, Turnstone 2 just east of Hill Farm, Yellow-legged Gull 3 (2 ads 1 3rd calendar year) and 2 Waxwings in Grafham Village near the old school - my first close views of the influx...

Woodwalton Fen area - 16 December 2012

A benign winter morning with light southerly breeze, some high cloud and sunshine. A modest yet satisfying birding session from 0730 to 1300:

16 Bewicks and 4 Whooper Swans distantly on the adjacent fields, 2 redhead Goosanders on Great Raveley drain; a good raptor morning with 6 Sparrowhawks in the air and displaying together, a single male Merlin flashed across Darlow's Farm, a sub adult male Marsh Harrier perched and a ringtail Hen Harrier across the adjacent fields. Passerine highlights were limited to small numbers of winter thrushes, 4 Chiffchaffs, c.30 Siskins and 17 Lesser Redpolls with one larger likely Mealy that offered too brief views to be identified beyond doubt.