AMWELL THIS MORNING

Amwell Watchpoint (0820-1100)

A lovely morning with plenty of Birds of Prey on display.

4 Little Egret
1M Shelduck
32 Shoveler
16 Teal1
Red Kite (W at 1050)
7 Common Buzzard
3 Sparrowhawk (MFF)
2 Kestrel
1 Peregrine (N at 0825)
1 Water Rail
2 Little Ringed Plover
2 Ringed Plover
10+ Lapwing
2 Redshank
6 Common Snipe
10 BH Gull
13 Common Gull
3 LBB Gull (1 Ad, 2 3rd cal yr)
1 Barn Owl
2 Green Woodpecker
3 GS Woodpecker
1-2 LS Woodpecker
1 Sand Martin
1 Meadow Pipit (NE)
4 Grey Wagtail
2 Cetti's Warbler (MM)
3 Chiffchaff

MIKE HARRIS

First BLACK REDSTART of year

The first BLACK REDSTART of the year, a female, was showing well this afternoon (Friday 20th) on the roof of the derelict BT huts at Hatfield Aerodrome

SCANDINAVIAN ROCK PIPIT PRESENT FOR THIRD DAY ON WILSTONE

THURSDAY 19 MARCH

WILSTONE RESERVOIR (HERTS) (1700 hours)
(cold Easterly wind but clear, bright and sunny)

Warren Claydon discovered a ROCK PIPIT at Wilstone Reservoir early evening on Wednesday 18 March. It was associating with two Pied Wagtails of the rocky foreshore at the edge of the reservoir just below the car park steps and remained until dark.

Fortunately, the bird was still present the following morning (per Charlie Jackson, and later seen by Roy Hargreaves, Francis Buckle, Ben Miller, Mike Campbell and others). David Bilcock and I were not able to get to the site until late afternoon but thankfully it was still showing very well in the same area in which it had been first found. It was showing exceptionally well and was generally moving back and forth along a 100 yard stretch of the reservoir edge and top bank, and occasionally flying as far as the jetty.

It was a SCANDINAVIAN ROCK PIPIT (littoralis) in transitional plumage and was superbly photographed by Dave (see images above). Much of the brown of winter plumage had been replaced by greyer-brown feathering, particularly on the upper mantle and head, and the obvious dark malar patch was bordering a light peach-coloured throat and upper breast patch. The white supercilium was quite well developed, extending from just behind the bill (loral area) to a little way behind the eye, whilst the underparts were still largely streaked, with long blotchy brown streaks extending from mid breast, along the flanks and short of the white undertail-coverts. The stout bill was all dark whilst the legs had a warmer element to them, with some dark orange-brown infiltrating. The outer tail feathers were off-white, but markedly whiter than the decidedly grey of petrosus Rock Pipit but not pure white as in Water Pipit.

When two fisherman and their barking dog walked along, they flushed the bird and it uttered a sharp, explosive, single ''vissssttt' call-note, uttered twice in well separated intervals.

(The bird is still present today, Friday 20 March)

Also of note were 62 FIELDFARE flying north at 1715

STARTOP'S END RESERVOIR

At last, I finally caught up with SAND MARTIN (all other regular Tring birders had seen them over the weekend during my absence) with 19 birds feeding over the reservoir early evening.

A migrant flock of birds was also present on the east bank of grass including 16 'alba' wagtails (all mostly adult male Pieds but including two very alba-like first-year male Pieds), a Grey Wagtail and 2 'grey' Meadow Pipits

The first day of spring (Friday 20 March) saw a LITTLE RINGED PLOVER at Tunnel Way Development, Pitstone (Steve Rodwell) - the first in our area this year. The SCANDINAVIAN ROCK PIPIT was still showing well on Wilstone (per Francis Buckle)

First BARN SWALLOW of the year - at Amwell

20+ SAND MARTINS through Amwell this morning with 1 BARN SWALLOW, 5 Chiffchaff, 3 singing CETTI'S WARBLERS. Pair each of Redshank and Ringed plover. 3 Little Egrets, 7 Goldeneye (Graham White)

AMWELL 16 MARCH

At Amwell GP this evening: 6 SAND MARTINS flew north, 1 Common Chiffchaff, 1 EURASIAN BITTERN, 8 LITTLE EGRETS in to roost, 16 Common Goldeneye, 2 Common Redshank, 2 Ringed Plovers (Graham White)

White-winged Gull on Ware Tip

SUNDAY 15 MARCH

A juvenile KUMLIEN'S GULL (or just possibly a Kumlien's/Thayer's intergrade/hybrid) was present on Westmill tip, Ware this afternoon from 14.45 until 15.40 when it flew off South.

The plumage was typical of a "dark end" Kumlien's (I have found numerous Kumlien's photos with an exact match for the plumage that the bird was in), but it was structurally slightly heavier than a typical Iceland Gull - it had a rather oblong or "pear shaped" head more reminiscent of a Thayer's than an Iceland Gull - so far I have found only a few photos captioned as Kumlien's of birds with this sort of structure (Barry Reed)

First DUNLIN of the year at Amwell

The first DUNLIN this year was present at Amwell GP all day Saturday 14 March. A Barnacle Goose flying in (and out) with Canada Geese was another addition to the Amwell yearlist, even though it probably only came from Kings Mead.

At least 6 SAND MARTINS were seen, and the EURASIAN BITTERN was (somewhat) visible all day at the "Water Vole watchpoint" (especially in the evening when it was balancing on a bundle of reeds) (Jan Hein Steenis)

SPRING MIGRANTS ARRIVE IN FORCE

Today saw a major arrival of spring migrants with a LITTLE RINGED PLOVER at Stocker's Farm Pool (JT, LGRE, and others), numerous SAND MARTINS (including 14 on Wilstone), numerous singing COMMON CHIFFCHAFFS and the first male NORTHERN WHEATEARS (at Tyttenhanger and at Allen's Green (TL 458 176) (Mike Harris et al)

THE STORY SO FAR - 122 SPECIES RECORDED

A total of 122 species has been recorded in Hertfordshireby 12th March 2009
(LGRE Total = 110 - 12 March - those marked in blue)

1) Great Crested Grebe
2) Little Grebe
3) BLACK-NECKED GREBE
4) Sinensis Cormorant
5) EURASIAN BITTERN
6) Little Egret
7) Grey Heron
8) Mute Swan
9) WHOOPER SWAN
10) Greylag Goose
11) Canada Goose
12) DARK-BELLIED BRENT GOOSE
13) Common Shelduck
14) Egyptian Goose
15) Mandarin Duck
16) Mallard
17) Gadwall
18) Pintail
19) Shoveler
20) Eurasian Wigeon
21) Common Teal
22) Pochard
23) Red-crested Pochard
24) Tufted Duck
25) Common Goldeneye
26) SMEW
27) Goosander
28) Ruddy Duck
29) Red Kite
30) Common Buzzard
31) Sparrowhawk
32) Kestrel
33) PEREGRINE
34) MERLIN
35) Red-legged Partridge
36) Grey Partridge
37) Common Pheasant
38) Water Rail
39) Moorhen
40) Coot
41) Oystercatcher
42) Ringed Plover
43) Lapwing
44) European Golden Plover
45) Common Sandpiper
46) Green Sandpiper
47) Common Redshank
48) EURASIAN CURLEW
49) Woodcock
50) Common Snipe
51) Jack Snipe
52) RUFF
53) Black-headed Gull
54) Common Gull
55) MEDITERRANEAN GULL
56) Herring Gull
57) Yellow-legged Gull
58) CASPIAN GULL
59) Lesser Black-backed Gull
60) Great Black-backed Gull
61) GLAUCOUS GULL*
62) ICELAND GULL*
63) Stock Dove
64) Woodpigeon
65) Collared Dove
66) Tawny Owl
67) SHORT-EARED OWL
68) Barn Owl
69) Little Owl
70) Common Kingfisher
71) Ring-necked Parakeet
72) Green Woodpecker
73) Great Spotted Woodpecker
74) LESSER SPOTTED WOODPECKER
75) Skylark
76) Sand Martin
77) Meadow Pipit
78) WATER PIPIT*
79) Pied Wagtail
80) Grey Wagtail
81) Wren
82) BOHEMIAN WAXWING
83) Dunnock
84) Robin
85) Stonechat
86) Song Thrush
87) Redwing
88) Mistle Thrush
89) Fieldfare
90) Common Blackbird
91) Blackcap
92) Cetti’s Warbler
93) Common Chiffchaff
94) Goldcrest
95) Great Tit
96) Coal Tit
97) Blue Tit
98) Marsh Tit
99) Long-tailed Tit
100) Nuthatch
101) Common Treecreeper
102) NORTHERN GREY SHRIKE
103) Magpie
104) Jay
105) Jackdaw
106) Rook
107) Carrion Crow
108) COMMON RAVEN
109) Starling
110) House Sparrow
111) TREE SPARROW
112) Chaffinch
113) BRAMBLING
114) Linnet
115) LESSER REDPOLL
116) Goldfinch
117) Siskin
118) Greenfinch
119) Bullfinch
120) Reed Bunting
121) Yellowhammer
122) CORN BUNTING

WAXWINGS REMAIN

A party of 5 BOHEMIAN WAXWINGS was in Silver Birch trees at Giles School, Stevenage, by the entrance gate at 10am this morning (per R. Kynman)

First CURLEW of the year

This evening with Steve, Charlie, Mike Campbell and Stuart, the adult MEDITERRANEAN GULL was still present in the roost. Two SAND MARTINS were in front off the hide early on and another party of 8 headed west along the north bank.

Also a single EURASIAN CURLEW flew over the reservoir heading NW towards Puttenham at ca.5pm (Dave Bilcock)

PINTAIL AT TYTTENHANGER

A pair of NORTHERN PINTAIL were at Tyttenhanger GP today (Steve Blake)

AMWELL THIS EVENING

Amwell GP from 17:40 to 18:15- 16 Goldeneye- 8 (or so) Little Egret- 4 Redshank- 2 Ringed Plover- 1 Barn Owl (flew over the Lea towards the fields as I left). The amount of gulls was pitiful (Jan Hein Steenis)

AMWELL 'PECKERS STILL SHOWING

The pair of LESSER SPOTTED WOODPECKERS gave excellent views this morning, in the wood on the opposite of the Lea Navigation from James Hide. There was also a BRAMBLING briefly by the James Hide, and a Ringed Plover from the viewpoint (David Booth)

First SAND MARTIN of year

SUNDAY 1 MARCH

AMWELL NR

A SAND MARTIN flew around for about an hour until sunset (same date as last year, apparently!)

A pair of LESSER SPOTTED WOODPECKERS had been showing very well in the morning (for the first time in a while), between the viewpoint and the rail crossing.

Otherwise: a somewhat curiously-looking Yellow-legged Gull (red eyering, yellowlegs, but rather large mirrors and a rather light mantle).
1 Ringed Plover
1 Common Redshank

Jan Hein Steenis

CASSIOBURY PARK

CASSIOBURY PARK (Saturday morning)

Pair of MANDARIN DUCK on the river below the car park
4 Ring-necked Parakeets
Common Kingfisher
Grey Wagtail
Great Spotted Woodpecker (5)
Green Woodpecker
Eurasian Sparrowhawk
SISKINS (35+)

Martin Parr/Lee Evans