Cassio. Park and Bury Lake (7th September)

Soon after catching the bus at 7:40am a picked up on a Hobby circling the fishing lakes down in the village, seen from the KL high street near Jubilee Walk.  Cassio. Park was relatively quite except for 1 Green Woodpecker and 2+ Ring-necked Parakeets.  At 1:30pm I was at Bury Lake to go sailing were good wind provided ideal sailing opportunities and brought in a fly over Red Kite and Great Crested Grebes on the water.  I Also have plans to twitch the Pectoral Sandpiper tomorrow on Friday but I still have another day of school ahead before I can go, hopefully its still there.

Playing fields at the KL School (6th September)

Fewer birds than my previous visits but strong winds and a late visit didn't help.  However, 2 Green Woodpeckers (1ad ♀, 1juv. ♀) were feeding.  8 Black-headed Gulls were also at the back of the field but numbers later rose to 30+ birds and several more over the canal area seen from Barnes Lane as well as 1 Lesser Black-backed Gull.  I also viewed the Crow roost for a second time which included similar numbers as last time, consisting of 70+ Jackdaws and Carrion Crows.

Playing field behind the KL School

I was glad to get out past 6pm this evening to go behind the KL School to check for any probable gull flocks after coming back from my first day of school this term.  Unfortunately on arriving the gulls decided to fly just  as I arrived after which they landed in the far southern corner of the playing field just out of sight.  However a few birds of note did pass through including 1 Hobby that flew low over the northern length of the field in a NNW direction, in the exact same direction that the previous Hobby took on the 23rd August.  After c.30 minutes the gull flock took flight again with half the flock deciding to remain at the back of the field whilst the rest flew east towards the canal and fishing lakes in the village.  The remaining flock only consisting of Black-headed Gulls and 3 Lesser Black-backed Gulls.  Next I decided to scan the fields adjacent to the playing fields on the opposite side of the road were, soon after beginning to scan I noticed a large mixed flock of 70+ Carrion Crows and Jackdaws come to roost in the woodland in Long Dean Nature Reserve at 7:30pm.  1 Little Egret was also a first for my Kings Langley list and was flying in the direction of the fishing lakes in the valley from a NNW direction.  Despite the fast fading light and grey sky bringing rain a Muntjac Deer was still visible from Barnes Lane as I viewed it walk across the grass field east of Woodlands Road.  I finally made a late night visit at 8:00pm to the KL Woods to check whether the bait of peanuts that I had previously laid out for Badgers in the ditch had worked as I found a group of burrows in the SE of the woodland that might be belonging to them.

London (4th September)

A great day out in London first going to the National Gallery to see some of the best art in the country if not in the world (in my opinion) including some of my favourite artist, Van Gogh's, with paintings such as, "Vase with Twelve Sunflowers", "Van Gogh's Chair", "Wheat Field with Cypresses" and my favourite "Two Crabs".  Enough about art and I soon decided to walk to the Tate Modern were I hoped to find the resident Peregrines.  Fortunately when arriving the RSPB stand was there showing passers both members of the pair of Peregrines that were perched as usual on the Tate Modern tower.  After about 15 minutes of watching the male decided to leave as the rain got worse, however the female preferred to stay on the ledge rather than follow the male.

Tring Reservoirs and Ivinghoe (2nd September)

WILSTONE RESERVOIR

As always had an excellent day out at Tring Reservoirs with three new additions to my growing year list!  I arrived at c.7:00am and was lucky to arrived just as the juv. Little Stint was feeding very close to the jetty and approached up to several meters from the end of the jetty.

Little Stint

After c.20 minutes of watching it feeding amongst 8 Ringed Plovers (a mixture of adults and juveniles) it flew of towards the SE bank and continued to feed.  A Peregrine was also a surprise fly over as it headed directly over the SE edge of the reservoir towards Drayton Beauchamp.  A Whinchat was also in the overflow field showing amazingly whilst perching on the thistle plants, also in the same field were several Yellowhammer, Willow Warbler and a Chinese Water Deer was also to the right of the hide along the reeds.

  Whinchat

The highlights at the hide were 1 Green Sandpiper, 2 Common Sandpipers, 1 juvenile Ruff present amongst a flock of 50+ Lapwing that occasionally took flight as the resident group of 3 Hobbies (including 1 juv.) flew over.  The juvenile being the most showy by making a close pass infront of the hide and landing on the mud giving a great oppotunity to make a good plumage comparsions with the adults.

STARTOP'S END AND MARSWORTH RESERVOIR

The water level at Startop's still remains relatively high however the margins still hosted a juv.♂ Ruff, a feral pair of Whooper Swans and 2 Hobbies over Marsworth R.

Ruff

INCOMBE HOLE

Only a short visit to the hills was relatively unproductive.  However the recent success at the reservoirs with all the key species of the day having been seen less effort was put into finding more birds, Kestrels and Linnet were the main bird of not on the downs however I also glimpse a small chat, most likely a Stonechat given the white scapulars small size and reddish brown body fly around the valley and land in a hedge were it didn't show again.

(all photos taken by my brother Ephraim)

fields behind the RSSKL

Another dog walk behind the RSSKL produced several bird species including Sparrowhawk, Kestrel and a singing Yellow Wagtail, unfortunately out of site just over the A41 bridge on the west side.  Also 1 Buzzard flew low over our back garden later in the afternoon.

Chipperfield Common (31st August)

Very few birds showing whilst I walked through the wood but learning calls proved very useful when a Marsh Tit began to call very close in the cover of a hawthorn bush, less than a minute later it was showing well and feeding in the open with a nut (probably taken from a local feeder).