Thursday 30 October 2008

29 OCTOBER 2008

WEDNESDAY 29 OCTOBER 2008

For the first time since October 1934, snow befell the Chiltern and London area overnight, leaving a thin blanket of snow throughout the region. The rain turned to snow overnight and after the band had cleared away to the west, the temperature dropped to -4 degrees freezing the snow and lying water.

I fully expected an influx of birds, perhaps wildfowl such as Goosander, but this was not to be, and the best that could be mustered were a large influx in Great Crested Grebe numbers, a new DUNLIN and a small flock of Fieldfares.

WILSTONE RESERVOIR
(Lying snow, very cold, light NE wind) (0900-1100 hours; birding with Steve Rodwell)

Great Crested Grebes* (influx, with 29 on Wilstone, 29 on Startop's End, 5 on Tringford and 7 on Marsworth - 70 in total)
Little Grebe (6)
Grey Heron (3)
Cormorant (15)
Mute Swan (23 including a first-winter which stayed just briefly)
WHOOPER SWAN (the adult pair remain)
Eurasian Wigeon (just 88)
Gadwall (11)
Common Teal (200+)
NORTHERN PINTAIL (4, 3 drakes and a female)
Northern Shoveler* (high count of 138 birds, all roosting on central bank)
Northern Pochard (69)
Tufted Duck (107)
RUDDY DUCK (7 including four drakes, a female and two juveniles)

Lapwing (238+)
EUROPEAN GOLDEN PLOVER (93)
COMMON REDSHANK (present for its 2nd day)
**DUNLIN (new winter-plumaged individual)
COMMON SANDPIPER (long-staying bird still present)
Common Snipe (5)

FIELDFARES (24 in field near Cemetery)
Skylark (3 west)
Chaffinch (1 west)
COMMON STONECHAT (in Rushy Meadow, present for its 5th day)

I then spent over an hour searching the fields to the SW of Wilstone for Roy's Richard's Pipit but despite all of the fields being covered in snow and revealing all within them, there was no sign of it.

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