New Patch Tick

Just lately birding around Gayhurst Quarry has been rather hard work.
  What with the incredible amount of rain we've had recently the water level has raised considerably meaning most of the islands and muddy shoreline has disappeared, making it unsuitable for any wading birds.
Not to mention that it's almost impossible to walk around the bottom end of the lakes
 We are also smack bang in the middle of the shooting season so any birds that are there are spooked very easily.
 Today didn't look as though it would be any different.
Of course there were the usual large flocks of Mallards and Wigeon, 50 or so Tufted Ducks, only 5 Gadwall and a solitary drake Pochard.
Three Little Egrets and three Herons stood in the flooded field between the rivers.
It was on Motorway Pit where most of the birds were gathered as this is where the feed is put down for them. Some 400 Greylags and about 50 Canada Geese were taking advantage of this and I counted 86 Mute Swans on the Pit. While checking through for any rarer winter visitors I noticed two smaller birds - a pair of Shelduck. While not a scarce species nationally, we do get very few in the county and these were the first I had seen at Gayhurst in almost 10 years of watching regularly. My 129th species for the site.
 They did go for a fly around at one point but dropped back down in to what they obviously felt was the safety of the large Swan flock.
 I make no apologies for the record shot below.

 A flock of 31 Golden Plover was a bonus flying over along with 60 odd Lapwing.
 

The Queen Mother....God Bless Her !

I was in twitch mode this weekend.
On Saturday afternoon, a Grey Phalarope at Dunstable Sewage works was a bit to good to be ignored. This bird should have long since departed for Africa but obviously the warmish sewage water held enough insect life to keep this frenetic little wader happy.
 Although it never actually moved very far, good views were had even though at some 100 yards range.

On Sunday morning I set my sights even higher with a trip to the Queen Mother Reservoir in Berkshire.
For a couple of days a very rare American vagrant a Buff-bellied Pipit had been present.
Normally entry to this site is by permit only but fortunately Berkshire Ornitholological Society had managed to get access for the huge number of people who wanted to see this bird.
 On arrival it was easy to see which way to go as a steady stream of birders wandered down  towards it's favoured area just beyond the pier.
 Unfortunately the only Pipits seen around this area were Meadow Pipits, but a bit further along our target bird had been located.
 To say this little fellow had no fear of Humans is a bit of an understatement as it fed happily just feet from the hordes of admirers.

Buff-bellied Pipit

Buff-bellied Pipit

When eventually I'd had my fill of this mega rarity, I decided to complete the lap of the 3 mile circumference of the reservoir to try and see a couple of the other good birds that were also on site.
 While I managed to find the long staying Long-tailed Duck, the Red-necked Grebe seemed to have chosen that day to depart.

the bird in the centre is a Long-tailed Duck(honestly)

I thought I might have seen a few Ring -necked Parakeets as this is their heartland but 3 flyovers were the only ones I managed.

 

From the Hide at Willen

Just to let you know that I'm still around.
Here are some pictures taken recently at Willen, before the floods and subsequent cold snap.

Lapwing

just three of the eighteen Snipe that have been present

three of the eleven Little Grebe (plus a Tuftie)

Sleepy Mute

 

New for the garden

In what has been an unbelievable Autumn for the number of Jays arriving on these shores from the Continent, I am very pleased to say that my small garden in Hardmead has not missed out.
 I have seen this particular bird around the village for over a month now and finally he has discovered my birdtable.
 O.K. he doesn't hang around long, just enough time to fill his beak with seed, bread, whatever and off he goes, returning ten minutes or so later after presumably burying his haul.

Jay

Jay

First one I've ever had in the garden although there have been several flyovers.

Back Wood Funghi

A stroll around Back Wood on Friday failed to produce any of the hoped for Bramblings that seem to be arriving everywhere else in good numbers just recently. The Chaffinch flock is still quite small at the moment but the food is there, so plenty of time yet.
 In fact birding wise it was pretty disappointing, with a few Siskins, a Buzzard   and the usual Goldcrests and Coal Tits being the highlights.
 What I did notice though was that there were lots of Funghi around including a few interesting ones, so this post is dedicated to them.

Everyone's favourite the Fly Agaric

 

Think this might be Honey Fungus

?

 

Shaggy Ink Cap

 

 

 

Puff Ball

The more than a bit rude Stinkhorn.  Note the flies on the cap

 

Wilstone Grebe

It's always embarrassing to make a wrong call on a bird. You don't want people to travel to see a potential rare only to find out that it's a more common species that you have misidentified. I think most birders will have done this at least once.
 My attitude is though, better to put the news out because if it is that rareity you would feel even more stupid if someone else found it later and you tried to say 'oh yes I found that last week!'
 Well as of now I won't feel half as bad.
A certain well known, nationally acclaimed local birder, when told that a Black-necked Grebe had turned up at nearby Wilstone Reservoir, rushed out to see it and posted pictures on his blog naming it as a a Black-necked Grebe.
 A couple of days later after many people had been out to see it, stories started coming out that it was actually a Slavonian Grebe.
 Hence a return visit by the aforementioned 'celebrity' and the reversing lights started coming on followed by lots of excuses.
 O.K. Black-necked Grebe is a very good bird to see but in my book Slavonian is a good deal better. So this morning I took  a trip out to see this wonderful bird especially as reports suggested it had been showing at ridiculously close range.
 Sure enough although it wasn't exactly in the place it had been for the rest of the week  the delightful little chap performed really well about 10 yards offshore, unfazed by people constantly walking past.

Slavonian Grebe

Slavonian Grebe

 Elsewhere on the reservoir there were good numbers of waterfowl with lots of Wigeon, Teal, Gadwall and Mallard especially, with Shoveler, Tufted Ducks and Pochard all present. Near to the hide 3 Little Egrets and a single Black-tailed Godwit paddled in the mud.

Footnote:
 Slavonian Grebe is a bird that has eluded me in my home county of Bucks. I've just worked out that I have now seen it in all of the surrounding counties:

Bedfordshire: 1 bird, Northants: 3, Cambridgeshire: 1, Hertfordshire: 1, Leicestershire: 3, Warwickshire: 1.
Bucks really is a birdless county !

Surprise on the marsh

While on a bit of a stomp around Olney Meadows this lunchtime, mainly hoping to find a Jack Snipe - I did see one Common Snipe -, I had one of them moments when you find yourself in mid-step and have to stop putting your foot down.
 I have a phobia of Snakes and there just under my foot was this sunbathing two foot long Grass Snake.
Even though I am scared of them, I can't help but watch them and managed a few photos before it slithered off into the grass. Unfortunately it's head is partially obscured  but other than that you can see it pretty well.