David, Malcolm, Roger and I
decided that as the Little Bunting in Bedfordshire had shown well every day
since our trip last Saturday that we would give it another go. I was driving today and Roger and I picked
David up and then we went to Market Harborough to pick up Malcolm. We were to call at the New Working Pit at
Paxton Gravel Pits on route where we would hopefully find the female
Ring-necked Duck before continuing to Great Barford.
When we arrived at Diddington,
David was off down the track and found some wildfowl close to the bank but when
I got there they had all disappeared and we contemplating having to walk to the
northern footpath to view the water from the northern shore. David then indicated that he had found a
single bird that looked promising, which was diving frequently. He got us looking in the right area and it
wasn’t long before we were all observing the same bird. The light wasn’t helping as it the bird was
mainly a silhouette and it was difficult getting any colouration on the bird
but it clearly wasn’t a Tufted Duck. As
we continued to watch it the head-shape appeared correct and I was sure I had
caught sight of the pale band towards the tip of what was a longish bill. It gradually moved further to our left, when there
was a slight improvement in the
light and I could see the darker crown contrasting with the slightly paler
cheeks and certainly caught sight of the pale band on the bill. Although the views weren’t brilliant we were
all happy that it was the female Ring-necked Duck, which was a better start today
than on Saturday.
With the Ring-necked Duck in
the bag we continued onto Great Barford and walked to the Little Bunting site. There was just one birder there when we
arrived, who had been present for a while but wasn’t sure if he had seen the
Little Bunting. He showed me quite a few
photos of birds he had seen but they were all of Reed Buntings and didn’t
confirm that he had seen Little Bunting.
He was also standing a little too close and I suggested that we all move
back a little, which he did. As we
watched the area where the seed was there were quite a few Chaffinch and Reed
Bunting coming to feed. David then said
I may have it and indicated where it was but it was partially hidden and both
he and Malcolm then convinced themselves that it was probably just a Reed Bunting. As I watched the bird I became increasingly
confident that it was the Little Bunting as it was showing a chestnut cheek and
a dark surround to the rear cheek and looked smaller, although it was partially
obscured I wasn’t totally confident about the latter point. When I said, I was sure that it was the
Little Bunting, David after second thoughts agreed but Malcolm still wasn’t
convinced and then the birds flew off into the scrub.
The guy who had been taking
photos early then produced an image of a bird, which was the bird we had just
seen and I was still happy it was the Little Bunting and both David and Roger
were also happy. It was probably twenty
minutes or more before it reappeared and this time in full view briefly before
it went and hid behind some vegetation and although it was there for another
good ten minutes we only had brief and intermittent views of its head. The birds eventually all flew back into the
scrub as did the Little Bunting. Birds
were still coming to feed, particularly Chaffinches and Reed Buntings but there
was also Blue Tit, Great Tit, Robin and Dunnock. Eventually the Little Bunting reappeared and
this time where we could see and we had some nice views for fifteen minutes or
so before it disappeared again.
Male Reed Bunting
Little Bunting
Little Bunting
Little Bunting
Little Bunting
Little Bunting
We left Great Barford and
headed north on the A1 and then east to Marsh Farmers on the Nene Washes
arriving just after 12:30.
After some lunch, we walked up
onto the bank to view the washes, where there was noticeably more water than on
my last visit. There were plenty of
wildfowl on the water, mainly Wigeon but also Gadwall, Teal, Mallard, Pintail
and Shoveler and there were also six Whooper Swans. As we continued to scan we found three Little
Egrets and five Oystercatchers and after seeing several Ruff in flight managed
to count eleven and a small party of Dunlin were observed. I had noticed a large concentration of birds
in the distance, that appeared to be resting at the edge of some flood water
but I wasn’t sure what they were but suspected that they were either
Wigeon or Golden Plover,
although they looked large for the latter.
One of two female-type Marsh Harriers then drifted over the area was causing
some panic amongst the birds and as I scanned through the birds in flight I
realised that the unidentified birds were Black-tailed Godwits and their
numbers must have been close to 500, which was quite impressive. There were also plenty of Wigeon, Golden
Plover and Lapwing in flight and we had found seven Cranes scattered around the
wash. We eventually decided that we
should move to Eldernell as we weren’t picking up anything different.
One of the two female-type Marsh Harriers
We had seen a couple of
Buzzards at Marsh Farmers and as we approached the car park at Eldernell there
were two more soaring over the fields.
After parking, we walked to the bridge to view the washes but the fresh
and cool wind was making it uncomfortable but we did have two male and two
female-type Marsh Harriers and several Kestrels and a Peregrine was on its
usual perch to the east of the old duck decoy.
We saw frequent disturbance to the east with Golden Plover and Lapwing
often observed along with the wildfowl and a flock of Dunlin contained at least
thirty birds but surprisingly we didn’t see any Black-tailed Godwits. There were at least thirteen Cranes present
and we saw these both on the ground and in fight but as usual they were always quite
distant.
As the afternoon progressed
the wind started to easy, when we had a Kingfisher fly around the bridge and
perch briefly before flying on further.
Just after this both Roger and I picked up a Short-eared Owl and we then
found a second perched on some coral fencing.
Female Kestrel hunting
Female Kestrel hunting
Female Kestrel hunting
We eventually called it a day
and headed off home after a very successful day’s birding, which was in stark
contrast to our day on Saturday, with both target birds seen with relative ease
and then a good selection of birds on the Nene Washes.
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