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 Much of the brown of winter plumage had been replaced by greyer-brown feathering, particularly on the upper mantle and head, and the obvious dark malar patch was bordering a light peach-coloured throat and upper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)