A fair selection of waders were seen during the month including the wintering Spotted Redshank, Grey plover, Avocet, nearly 40 Curlew, three Ruff and a Jack Snipe. The first Little Ringed Plovers arrived on the 21st and Green and Common Sandpipers were new in on the 29th. Lapwings and Redshank are settling down nicely and hopefully our duck and grebes will also fair well in the fox free zone.
Punky Grebe (Tony Orwell)
The Thames was very quiet with a young Caspian Gull regularly on the south side and the odd Med Gull being the highlights. A single Brent Goose was seen on the 8th. Little Egrets peaked at 28 and a Great White Egret in full breeding plumage stayed all day on the 26th. The Bittern was seen again briefly on the 11th.
One of our local Ravens dropped in on several dates from the 15th and a Short-eared owl was seen on the 29th and 30th. A Marsh Tit was reported on the 23rd and two pair of Bearded Tits seem to be on site. Two male and two female Marsh Harriers are still lingering, so fingers crossed but we have also had quite a few passage birds including four together on the 5th. Buzzards have been daily and Red Kites were seen on the 16th and 30th.
The first Wheatear arrived on the 20th with a White Wagtail (9th), Sand Martin (23rd), Sedge Warbler (28th) and Willow Warbler (31st) bringing up the other migrants.
There has been plenty of insect activity on warmer days with eight butterfly species and numerous Beefly, hoverfly and bee species to be seen while the Marsh Frogs are warming up and the Stoats and Weasels have been on the prowl but hopefully they will not get to the Kingfishers!
Bee Fly (Jerry Hoare)
3-4-14
Howard Vaughan, Information Officer