Before I get to today's birding I will just mention that on Thursday I tried my luck at a square kilometre surrounding Junction 16 of the M40, just north of Henley. For the most part it was as unexciting as you might expect, but I was pleasantly surprised to find a flock of 20 Yellowhammers on Nuthurst Farm just west of the motorway.
Anyway, today I joined Dave at Morton Bagot and we completed the usual circuit in cold, cloudy conditions. This was my first visit this year when the site was not frozen solid, and the birds responded accordingly. The flashes played host to 33 Teal, a Mute Swan, and slightly more unexpectedly four Wigeon. A Green Sandpiper was the third year-tick, although we only heard it.
The biggest surprise came when we prepared to view the Kingfisher Pool. A small group of Mallard flew up and popped over the hedge to the nearest flash and we heard a strange whistling call unlike anything I've ever heard before. I joked it could be a Whistling Duck, but then we spotted the bird itself and quickly concluded it was indeed. But which species?
The reason you have never heard of Whistling Duck (or maybe you have) is that it is not a British species. So we were left to Google Whistling Duck images before coming up with an identification of Fulvous Whistling Duck. Many years ago I saw "Tree Ducks" in India, and I suspect they were actually this species or Lesser Whistling Duck. Fortunately today's birds took off and circled the flash before pitching down on the furthest flash. In that brief flight they were transformed into a much more distinctive bird with seemingly black upper and under wings and white rumps. That rump colour proved to be diagnostic.
I can't count them as a tick of course....not on the British List.
In the afternoon I headed for Bittell Reservoir to do my bit for the BTO's Wings project. The idea was to count gulls at a gull roost. I was aware that the Bittell roost is largely a sub-roost and that the bit in my Circle (Lower Bittell) has no roosting gulls at all. Nevertheless I thought my data would count. It turns out that the times I counted were outside the parameters of the survey (I couldn't actually discover a time stipulation other than "around dusk") so I guess I left too early.
Oh well, Lower Bittell gave me several easy year-ticks. Coot, Tufted Duck, Great Crested Grebe, Shoveler and Gadwall were all missing from the year list because I hadn't visited anywhere with sufficient unfrozen water until today. The best bird was probably a squealing Water Rail, but I didn't have time to wait to see if it would show itself.
I had to head to foreign lands (Upper Bittell) where I was sure a gull roost (or at least sub-roost) would form. Sure enough it did. I counted 647 Black-headed Gulls, 12 Herring Gulls, and 153 Lesser Black-backed Gulls, and in the course of doing so discovered a single adult Mediterranean Gull in with the flock.
All this this was achieved with the help of a scope and tripod. If you don't own one, don't even bother going to Upper Bittell. Its a big beast, and the gulls roost just off the north shore. As I don't have a permit I was stuck on the dam, the south-east edge of the reservoir. I saw Martin Wheeler at Lower, and he joined me on the dam at Upper just as I was finding the Med Gull. Unfortunately I was intent on counting, so I was only vaguely aware he was there as I completed the count. When I did see him I obviously wanted to show him the Med Gull, but as I adjusted my tripod height the gulls flew, and although I felt sure it would still be among them I couldn't relocate it. Perhaps it had gone.
Finally, you may have noticed I've managed to get some photos onto the blog. It would be nice to think that the problem was just a glitch and my troubles are over. My gut feeling says no, but for the time being normal service is resumed.
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