Buckinghamshire Bird Club

This Little Crake was found on 6th November at Linford Reserve by photographer Ken Sargent. Kent sent a photograph to the County Recorder who confirmed it as a Little Crake, a first record for the county! As it was too late to visit that day, plans were put in place to allow public access on 7th and hopefully subsequent days.

Local permit holders put out news and access details on social media and manned the gate, car park and hide. This allowed quite a few local and birders from further afield to visit the site.
The bird was relocated at 06:50 on 7th Nov.

Temporary access was granted for a £5 donation on Tuesday and Wednesday mornings. However please check social media or the bird information services for the latest situation. Note that the site is not open 24 hours a day and normally a permit is required for access. An annual permit can be purchased for £20 at :-https://theparkstrust.digitickets.co.uk/category/13969.

This Red-necked Phalarope was found at Little Marlow Gravel Pit on 8th September 2022 by local birder Dave Ferguson. Dave only had binoculars with him and was unsure of which species of Phalarope it was. He very quickly put the news out and very soon a few local birders were on-site and were able to confirm the ID as a Red-necked.

The bird seemed unsettled as it frequently flew short distances but it kept returning to it’s favoured spot towards the SW corner of the lake. It did however remain until the following day at least.

Some photos of the previous birds can be found at this link. http://bucksbirdclub.co.uk/Pictures/RedNeckPhalarope.htm

There have been only eight previous records of this species in the county, most of them in the north of the county. This is the second sighting at Little Marlow, the first being on 7th June 2020.

With a moderate arrival of Hirundines on 27th April 2022, local birder Adam Bassett managed to pick out a superb Red-rumped Swallow flying over the lake at Little Marlow. He straight away put news out and within a very short space of time several birders were on site. The bird was quite elusive at times and the group of birders had to wait about 20 minutes before it was seen again. It was also easy to miss the bird in among the 50-100 Swallows, House Martins and Sand Martins that were present. Gradually more birders arrived on the scene and most birders managed to see the bird before it disappeared sometime before 10:30am.

The bird was extremely hard to photograph as it was constantly on the move. so please bear this in mind when viewing the record shots below. The video clip is well worth watching.

On 28th March 2022 local birder David Bevan was checking out the shallow pools at Marlow Low Grounds when he came across an unusual dabbling duck. Unsure of the ID he sent a still photo to a local birding group and this started a discussion and ended up with the various people involved visiting the site to see this interesting bird.

The bird remained on the same shallow pool for the rest of the day and news was put out that it was a Blue-winged Teal. Over twenty birders managed to see the bird before dark. The bird moved to an adjacent larger pool the following morning and was somewhat harder to view and continued to attract birders. At the time of writing (30th March) the bird was still present.

The bird is thought by some to be a female Blue-winged Teal although the plumage is not typical and others suggest that it is a hybrid. The species is a BBRC rarity and we will have to wait for their decision on whether the bird is in fact a Blue-winged Teal and not considered an escape (The species can be difficult to separate from Cinnamon Teal). The bird is un-ringed so there is nothing to suggest that the bird is an escape. If accepted by BBRC this will be a first record for Buckinghamshire.

________________________________________________________________________

A singing Marsh Warbler was found in north Bucks by Gyorgy Szimuly (Szimi) on 7th June and within a short time a female was also discovered. They were favouring suitable breeding habitat, so news of these birds was restricted in order to keep disturbance to a minimum. Fortunately a good number of local birders did manage to see the birds, providing many people with a county or life tick!

The female was extremely secretive and although the male was showing and singing to begin with it became much quieter as the month progressed.
In early July food carrying was observed and on one date there was activity suggestive of the young fledging but this could not be confirmed.

Whilst it is hoped that they successfully fledged young, this was not proven and there were no confirmed sightings after early July of either young or adults.

The pair were not easy to photograph, especially the female, although the male did show quite well at times while singing but often partially hidden in the vegetation. The following photos show the male over several days and shows the main features of the bird that allow it to be separated from Reed Warbler.

The following link is to a video of the male singing and shows the very varied mimicry that this species employs:-
https://youtu.be/ie6ruWn1-UM

This species has only been recorded in the county five times previously, the most recent was of a bird that was trapped and ringed in August 2019 at Hillesden. Prior to that there were sightings in 1956, 1960 and 1974 in late Spring. There is also a breeding record from Chalfont Park in 1931.

All photos Copyright © 2021