Watford - 30.9.09

Another day of removing bedding plants around Watford but nothing more exciting than a Great-Spotted Woodpecker and 2-300+ Starlings!

Later at Hilfiled Reservoir 15 Meadow Pipits over.

Caterpillar identified

Thanks to Steve Blake its a Knot Weed Moth caterpillar.

Caterpillar ID required.

This Caterpillar was found on the dam at Hilfield last week on a Plantain weed. I've no idea of what it is so can anyone help me please?

Its about an inch long and the head is on the right!

Watford - 29.9.09

A couple of hours in Watford Town centre at St.Mary's church pulling out the old bedding plants produced quitea good list for the location. A Coal Tit in with Blue and Great Tits, 2 Great-Spotted Woodpeckers, Grey Wagtail and a Meadow Pipit.

Cassiobury Park - 28.9.09

First bird of the day was a Mallard flying West over the yard at 7.35am. Unusual that far away from the river. Some fly over RN Parakeets and a couple of Meadow Pipits were also noted.

Buuterfly World - 27.9.09

Just some of the exotics at Butterfly World.

Went to the new attraction in Chiswell Green today and immediately found a Clouded Yellow butterfly! My first this year. A few Painted Ladies and a Peacock were noted and as for the birds a mixed flock (40+) of Goldfinches and Linnets were feeding on the seed heads. A couple of Meadow Pipits overhead and 1 Grey Heron and 2 Buzzards were the other avian highlights. And lastly another Clouded Yellow.

Around Watford - 24.9.09

Marking out footy pitches around Watford saw the following recorded.

Cassiobury Park held 3 House Martins, 6 Meadow Pipits heading South 10+ RN Parakeets and a Kingfisher.

KGV Playing Fields had 1 Meadow Pipit, 4 RN Parakeets and a singing Chiffchaff.

Oxhey Park had a single Chiffchaff.

And Callowland Rec had 2 more Chiffchaffs one of which was also singing.

Oxhey Grange - 23.9.09

Just a Swallow and a Meadow Pipit today!

Oxhey Grange - 22.9.09

A day spent hedge cutting at Oxhey Grange bowls club behind Watford Heath the following was seen. 5 RN Parakeets, Meadow Pipit over, Goldcrest and Nuthatch heard and a Sparrowhawk mobbed by a Magpie.

Whilst yesterday in Cassiobury Park another Sparrowhawk this time mobbed by a Carrion Crow over the footy pitches and a Great-Spotted Woodpecker in the council yard.

Wilstone Res - 20.9.09

2 of the 11 Little Egrets, Peacock Butterfly, Meadow Pipit, Male Yellow Wagtail, Pintail and the 2 Spotshanks.

3 hours at the reservoir from 10am-1pm with the Watford RSPB group was pretty sucessful the highlights as follows.

2 Spotted Redshank, Green Sandpiper, 11 Little Egrets, 4 Red Kites, 16 Yellow Wagtails, 2 White Wagtails (year tick), 4 Snipe, Pintail, 4+ Chiffchaffs, 3 Sand Martin, Hobby and a juv Ringed Plover.

West Watford - 18.9.09

13 Pied Wagtails and 150+ Starlings at KGV Playing Fields this morning were followed by more RN Parakeets and 3 Mistle Thrushes in Cassiobury Park.

Cassiobury Park - 17.9.09

40+ House Martins over the tennis courts at 7.20am soon left and 3 RN Parakeets over the council yard shortly after was the limit of the excitement today!

Watford - 16.9.09

The highlight today was a Hobby that flew over Callowland Rec at 2.45pm. Also 3 RN Parakeets over Oxhey Village.

100th Post! Cassiobury Park - 15.9.09

11 Mistle Thrushes in with Starlings and a single Blackbird on the footy pitches and 3 Swallows early afternoon brought down by the rain. Not very exciting for my 100th post on this blog!

Cassiobury Park + Back Garden - 14.9.09

6 RN Parakeets wheeling around over the bowls club, 5+ Jays and a fly over Mistle Thrush.

Update - Just added a new garden tick getting the washing in with a Meadow Pipit flying over the garden along with 3 Goldfinches and 25+ Starlings and a Goldcrest in next doors garden.

Cassiobury Park - 13.9.09

12+ RN Parakeets around the toilet block, a fly over Meadow Pipit and a Grey Wagtail by the waterfall were the highlights of 12 hours in the park (working)!

Mundens Magic - 12.9.09

2 RAF planes overhead, 2 photos of the Redstart. Bit blurry as they were digi-binned using my girlfriends head as a rest!!

My first visit to my old local patch in nearly 2 years was very much worth it with the discovery of a fem/juv Redstart. It was frequenting a hedge just left of the 2nd cattle grid along the main path just before the path becomes private and you have to turn right towards Aldenham. Looking at my old records for the estate its only the 2nd record with the last being a male reported to me in May 1990!

Other highlights were a female Shoveler on the small pool by the pumping station. Again Looking back at the records it becomes only the 8th record following a male from Jan 95- Mar 96, 3 male and a female in Nov 2001 and a pair in Jun 2001.

16 Teal on the same pool, 5 Chiffchaffs and a female Kestrel around the pumping station and at least 12 RN Parakeets ,10 of which were around where the Redstart was. It was trying to show my girlfriend these that I found the Redstart.

Another Singing Chiffy - 11.9.09

Whilst preparing a cricket wicket at KGV Playing Fileds in West Watford I heard my 2nd singing Chiffchaff in 2 days. It was singing from adjacent gardens. 6 RN Parakeets flew over and that was about it!

Pipit Passage

Today whilst visiting numerous parks in Watford marking the white lines on the footy pitches I noted the following.

Cassiobury Park - 11 Meadow Pipits all fly overs.
21 House Martins
8 RN Parakeets
2 Chiffchaffs including 1 in full song at 7.40am!!

KGV Playing Fields - 5 Meadow Pipits all fly overs

Oxhey Park - 2 Chiffchaff
1 Kingfisher

Croxley Moor - 6+ Meadow Pipit on the deck and fly overs
1 Kingfisher

Hilfield Res - 9.9.09

The Wheatear today.

50 minutes birding after work saw the following. Wheatear, Reed Warbler and a Meadow Pipit.

Work Birding - 8.9.09

Whilst out working today I had 2 Sparrowhawks over Ridge Lane, Watford and single RN Parakeets over Cassiobury Park, Ridge Lane and Oxhey Village. Other than that it's very quiet.

Kent 4-6.9.09

1 of loads of Grey Plovers, 2 Oystercatchers, Red Admiral Butterfly and a Cormorant.

Headed back down to the future in-laws on friday afternoon with the hope of making a visit to Dungeness at some point. But unfortunately I never made it due to the fact I couldn't be arsed to get out of bed early enough!! I had to make do with a few hours at nearby Riverside CP which in the end didn't really produce anything of note, the highlight being a Hobby putting up the waders on the Medway.

Worse was still to come as I checked my pager once I was back at the future mother-in-laws house and saw that an Alpine Swift was at Aldenham Reservoir which is less than 10 minutes from home! I recieved a frantic call from Joan Thompson telling me to get down there but I replied i'm in Kent!

Thankfully it's already on my Herts list with a flyover bird I self-found at my old local patch of the Mundens Estate on 7th May 1992, which is probably around a mile from Aldenham Res as the crow flies. Unfortunately it wasn't accepted by the rarity panel but I know what I saw!!

Terntastic!! - 3.9.09

White-Winged Black Tern + Black Tern

American Black Tern

American Black Tern

Black Tern

White-Winged Black Tern

White-Winged Black Tern in flight

The day before my Norfolk break a juvenile Black Tern appeared at Farmoor Reservoir in Oxfordshire, nothing amazing there I hear you say but it was then reported as possibly being a bird of the American race. A short while later it was confirmed that it was indeed an AMERICAN BLACK TERN only the 3rd for GB. What was more amazing was that it was present with a juv White-Winged Black Tern and a juv Black Tern! Unfortunately I had no time to get there before dark and was off to Norfolk in the morning. The chances of it staying were remote so I resigned myself to dipping them.

Some how though they were all still present on Thursday morning and so I decided to go for them.

On arrival it was clear that it was a tad windy (near gale force!) and as usual they were at the far end of the causeway and the far side of the reservoir! However I walked up and sat on the slope of the reservoir and was rewarded with amazing once in a lifetime views of 3 species of black tern in 1 scope view! I somehow managed to get some photos of the birds though with the wind and distance they aren't exactly amazing!

Also present with them was a juv Arctic Tern and when walking back to the car I looked overhead for a migrating Osprey but to no avail. That flew over about 2 hours after i'd left! And the journey there and back was enlightened by numerous Red Kites.

News this morning is that all 3 terns have finally left so I was very jammy indeed.

This was my 4th lifer in 4 visits to Farmoor the others being Franklin's Gull, Sabine's Gull and Buff-Bellied Pipit. Any of those in Herts would be nice!

Norfolk Break - 29.8 - 1.9.09

Gulls on Yarmouth beach, Woodpigeon and Linnet at Winterton, storm clouds over Hemsby and a Herring Gull at Caister.

An early morning start was brightened up with a garden tick in the form of a Ring-Necked Parakeet (heard) at 7am. Then c.3 hours later we'd arrived in Norfolk and immediately over the caravan we were staying in in Hemsby were 10+ Swallows and half a dozen Swifts.

Sunday arrived and being my birthday I decided to relax and do a bit of birding. While sitting on the steps of the caravan my first Tree Pipit of the year flew South then West inland calling as it went. This was followed later by a Sparrowhawk hunting the local Starlings.

An early evening visit to Winterton Dunes provided 2 more year ticks. 4 dark morph Arctic Skuas offshore harrassing the terns and 1+ Crossbill that flew South along the dunes and then evaded me in the dunes themselves. Also noted were 1 Swift, an adult Great Black-Backed Gull on the beach, a manky looking Yellowhammer, 2 Wheatears , a few Gannets at sea and a Grey Seal a few feet offshore.

On Monday a beach cricket game at Caister-on-Sea with my son saw 2 Ringed Plovers interrupt the game briefly as they flew South! While later in the day a wander around Horsey Gap saw 1+ Stonechat, 3 Kestrels and 4 Whitethroats.

Tuesday morning and another visit to Winterton Dunes unfortunately didn't produce any hoped for Spotted/Pied Flycatchers or Whinchats but a Lesser Whitethroat did show very well in the brambles until a dog walker flushed it just as I was trying to photograph it with my new digital camera. A birthday present to myself!

Finally 7 adult winter Mediterranean Gulls were on the beach in Great Yarmouth, again nearly photographed until 2 kids flushed them! Another Ringed Plover over the swimming pool and a Swift over.