Goring and journey to Wigan

Ahead of a journey to Wigan with Ingrid for the Catfish Study Group Convention, I headed out to Goring early but was met with poor visibility and dreadful weather so returned home. It became nicer later, and with some mouldy bread in need of disposal, we departed via the Gap to donate to the local gulls. I was amazed to spot the 2CY Iceland Gull in flight before we'd crossed driven through the Plantation and into the Gap and we tracked it into the northern fields, meeting up with Nick B. Hear it showed very well and enjoyed our stale loaf before we made tracks. En route we encountered over 20 Red Kites, mainly along the M40 but included a singleton over the M25 in line with Staines Moor.

2CY Iceland Gull

Staines

Arrived at Staines Moor at about 9.20am this morning, confident that I would be able to add the long staying 1st winter Brown Shrike to my year list, but completely and utterly failed.

Did however locate a single Water Pipit, a Kingfisher and a Cetti's Warbler which were all nice year ticks. The Kingfisher gave pretty good views. Shame about the Shrike.

Moving on to Staines Reservoirs, I enjoyed the wintering female/immature Scaup on the north basin and a Black-necked Grebe on the south basin, a couple of useful year ticks out of the way. A Common Sandpiper was a pleasant surprise, Goldeneyes, as always, were lovely and I got a series of other year ticks too.Driving home through Sutton I saw one of the resident Peregrines on their favourite corner of the Reed Building.

The year list is now on 86.

local winter birding

I did some (fairly) local birding with Phil Wallace today. Positive news on the pager of the Papercourt Black-throated Diver's continued presence coming up to 08:15 was encouraging and I was getting pretty excited about this showy Surrey mega.

We arrived at Papercourt GP's, a pleasant site, at about 09:40 after leaving at about 09:10. Teaming up with another birder, we walked the whole of the sailing pit where a handful of other birders that we bumped into it were having as little luck as we were. Failing on seeing the Diver, which was a huge disappointment, the only birds of any note were singles of Kingfisher, Egyptian Goose and Lesser Redpoll as well as large numbers of Great Crested Grebes and the odd Little Grebe here and there. An immature Cormorant flew over. We checked the small lake just south of the sailing pit but there was nothing other than Tufted Ducks, Shoveler, Pochard, Little Grebe and Mallard.

We chatted to some birders before we got into the car and headed over to Staines to have another look at the Shrike.

The path was an awful lot muddier than it was when I first went, probably due to being trampled by the boots of thousands of birders in the last two or so months! I now understand why Londonbirders keeps saying 'Wellies essential' in bold!

Just short of ten birders were present (with about ten encountered walking back on our way up) and we were soon on the BROWN SHRIKE. After a few minutes the bird showed really very well as it came to some of the closer bushes. Then, remarkably, it was feeding in the the reedmace on the river and perching atop stems, almost Penduline style! We also saw it feeding and hopping around on the ground! It then flew across the river and showed well in the bushes here. A birder walked past there and it didn't budge! The five of us left decided to give it a go to try and get closer views. I got within 30 or 40 metres and Phil walked up until he was about 20 metres away . . . then he took one step too far and it again fed in the reedmace patch before a noisy motorbiker roared straight past it, flushing it back over the river. We enjoyed views of it and pointed it out to a couple of newcomers for another half hour before heading back to the car and home. Also noted at Staines Moor: Water Pipit (heard), Cetti's Warbler (heard), 2 Little Egrets and 3 Egyptian Geese (a Cormorant flew over and a Rose-ringed Parakeet or two were at Hithermoor Road). Also large numbers of Fieldfares, Redwings, Linnets, Goldfinches, Greenfinches and Chaffinches were present as was a single Kestrel.

MEGA: BROWN SHRIKE Staines Moor, Middlesex

woo hoo! A couple of hours ago I got back from a successful after-school twitch for the Staines Moor Brown Shrike.

I zoomed out of school at 15:05 and got the 15:27 train to Clapham Junction, then getting the 16:08 from here to Ashford, 'Surrey'. Here I phoned a cab up and they picked me up promptly; dropping me at Hithermoor Road, Stanwell Moor for a relatively cheap £8. From here I walked down the concrete path by KGVI, passed through the metal kissing gate, over the boardwalk, a little bit further after that and then connected with the *BROWN SHRIKE*, this is a MEGA bird for Britain, but especially so for London! What a bird to have on your London list eh!?


I enjoyed good views on and off for a little while, around 17:00 until it seemed to go to roost. I waited for Phil Wallace to arrive to try to help him but I wasn't expecting him to get it. We tried another angle, here we saw that some other birders were on something, almost certainly the Shrike. Over we went. Oh no it had just flown into a bush. Phil ducked down to get his camera ready. It flew past with perfect timing deep into another bush. An angry Phil got his scope onto the bush and spotted it slowly emerging at the right hand side of the bush, I called it out and most people got onto it. It flew again to another bush where it gave better, more prolonged views and everybody present connected before it flew to another bush presumably never to again be seen, for that day at least.



Also seen: c.80 Wigeon, 1 Snipe, 1 Kestrel, several Meadow Pipits and a possible Rock Pipit overhead, calling.